EXCHANGE 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


HARVARD  COLLEGE  OBSERVATORY 


DURING  THE  PERIOD  1840-1890. 


BY 

DANIEL   WJ  BAKER. 


Reprinted  from  the  Boston  Evening  Traveller. 


CAMBRIDGE. 

1890. 


w 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


HARVARD  COLLEGE  OBSERVATORY 


DURING  THE  PERIOD  1840-1890. 


BY 


DANIEL   W.   BAKER. 


Reprinted  from  the  Boston  Evening  Traveller. 


. 

U'HIVBJ 


f/r? 


CAMBRIDGE. 
1890. 


PREFACE. 


A  CAREFUL  study  of  the  early  history  of  the  Harvard  College 
Observatory  has  been  made  by  Mr.  DANIEL  W.  BAKER,  Many  facts 
were  thus  brought  to  light  which  had  not  appeared  in  print.  A  series 
of  newspaper  articles  was  accordingly  prepared,  which  were  published 
in  the  Boston  "Evening  Traveller"  on  six  successive  Saturdays,  be- 
ginning August  2,  1890.  Much  of  this  material  appearing  to  be  of 
sufficient  value  for  preservation  in  a  more  permanent  form,  it  has 
been  reprinted  in  the  present  pamphlet,  with  slight  alterations,  and 
with  the  addition  of  the  illustrations  given  on  page  25.  The  parts 
numbered  IV.  and  V.  originally  appeared  together  as  a  single  article. 
Reproductions  have  been  made  of  some  of  the  illustrations.  The 
articles  were  originally  addressed,  not  to  professional  astronomers,  but 
to  the  general  public,  and  are  to  be  regarded  as  a  popular  description 
of  the  work  accomplished  at  the  Harvard  College  Observatory  during 
the  first  fifty  years  of  its  existence. 


EDWARD   C.  PICKERING. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE  OBSERVATORY, 
September  13, 1890. 


r  Q  nn  ci  T>  v 
±1 1  b  1  U  Jx  I  u 

<N<    t?J  ..          03EP  .  v    ,    /' 


OF 


THE  HARVARD  COLLEGE  OBSERVATORY. 

1840-1890. 


THE  present  is  the  semi-centennial  year 
of  the  Harvard  College  Observatory.  A 
precise  date  cannot  be  named  for  the  be- 
ginning, but  in  the  early  months  of  the 
year  1840  the  institution  was  gradually  or- 
ganized, and  before  midsummer  became 
a  tangible  fact  and  a  working  adjunct  of 
the  college. 

While  the  first  astronomical  observa- 
tion is  of  record  Dec.  31,  1839,  it  is  well 
known  that  the  observatory  had  not  then 
an  official  staff,  the  appointment  of  the 
first  director  being  of  date  Feb.  12, 1840, 
and  the  confirmation  by  the  Board  of 
Overseers  somewhat  later.  Moreover, 
this  particular  observation  and  others 
immediately  following  were  made  in  con- 
tinuation of  work  begun  elsewhere  and 
not  identified  with  the  college  affairs. 

The  advance  made  in  astronomical 
science  during  the  50  years  past  is  among 
the  wonderful  tacts  comprised  in  the  rec- 
ord of  the  19th  century,  and  it  is  true 
that  since  it  became  fairly  organized  and 
equipped,  Harvard  College  Observatory 
has  been  in  the  front  rank  in  the  march. 
A  review  of  this  progress  so  far  as  per- 
taining to  the  institution  at  Cambridge, 
is,  therefore,  timely.  A  history  of  50 
years,  embodying  so  many  facts  of  the 
first  importance  and  interest  as  does  this, 
cannot,  even  with,  the  most  resolute  pur- 
pose as  respects  brevity,  be  disposed  of 
in  a  single  chapter.  This,  accordingly, 
will  be  the  first  of  a  series.  The  reader 
may  be  assured  at  the  outset  that  Hie 
topics  to  be  touched  upon  are  various  and 
in  themselves  attractive,  and  that,  so  far 
as  possible,  technicalities  will  be  shunned. 

Regarding  the  period  of  beginning  just 
referred  to  as  the  blossoming,  whence 
has  followed  abundant  fruitage,  it  may 
be  remarked  that  a  long  time  passed  be- 
tween the  budding  and  the  blossoming, 
and  that  indications  of  the  flow  of  a  vital 
current  are  recognizable  at  as  remote  a 


date  as  17(51.  In  that  year  the  sloop 
owned  by  the  province  of  Massachusetts 
was  fitted  out  at  public  cost  to  convey 
Prof.  John  Winthrop  and  others  con- 
nected with  the  college,  provided  with 
instruments  belonging  to  the  college, 
to  Newfoundland,  for  observation  of  a 
transit  of  Venus.  In  1780,  notwithstand- 
ing the  financial  straits  incident  to  the 
war,  the  commonwealth  provided  a 
small  vessel  of  war,  called  a  "galley,"  to 
take  Prof.  Samuel  Williams,  of  the  col- 
lege, and  party  to  Penobscot  to  observe 
a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun.  The  first  defi- 
nite record  pointing  to  a  college  observa- 
tory is  of  date  1805,  when  John  Lowell, 
the  uncle  of  that  John  Lowell  who 
founded  the  Lowell  Institute,  being  in 
Paris,  consulted  with  Pelambre,  an  as- 
tronomer of  note,  and  procured  from 
him  written  instructions  as  to  suitable 
buildings  and  instruments  for  an  obser- 
vatory. This  document  was  sent  to  the 
college  authorities  at  Cambridge.  No  offi- 
cial action  followed.  The  next  of  record  is 
that  the  college  authorities  in  1815  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  consider  and  re- 
port upon  an  eligible  plan  for  an  obser- 
vatory. This  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  first  corporate  action  taken  in  the 
United  States,  having  such  an  object  in 
view.  The  doings  of  this  committee  are 
notable  in  two  particulars,  at  least.  They 
brought  into  official  relations  with  the 
college  for  the  first  time,  the  man  who 
was  destined  to  be  the  builder  and  organ- 
izer of  the  observatory,  25  years  later, 
William  Cranch  Bond. 

He  was  about  to  visit  Europe  and  was 
appointed  the  agent  of  the  college  to 
obtain  information  as  to  the  construction 
and  instrumental  equipment  of  the  ob- 
servatory at  Greenwich,  and  to  make 
such  plans,  drawings,  etc.,  as  would 
enable  him  or  another  to  construct  an 
astronomical  observatory  at  Cambridge ; 


6 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


also  to  ascertain  from  the  makers  the 
cost  of  certain  principal  instruments  like 
those  at  Greenwich.  He  performed  the 
service  and  reported  in  detail  in  the  fol- 
lowing year.  That  nothing  practical 
came  of  it  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  was 
not  owing  to  the  will,  but  comparatively 
speaking,  to  the  poverty  of  the  college. 

This  result  followed,  however, — and  it 
may  be  reckoned  the  second  notable  cir- 
cumstance— that,  upon  his  return,  Mr. 
Bond  constructed  the  model  of  an  astro- 
nomical dome,  the  operative  plan  of 
which  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  great 
dome, 'built  in  1844,  and  which  has  been 
in  satisfactory  use  at  Cambridge  to  the 


The  record  indicates  that  an  observa- 
tory did  not  cease  to  be  a  coveted  object 
at  any  time  during  the  25  years  prior  to 
1840.  Two  antecedent  events,  in 
themselves  of  importance,  combined 
to  bring  the  long  cherished  project  to  a 
happy  issue,— the  accession  of  Josiah 
Quincy  to  the  presidency  of  the  college 
and  the  action  of  Congress  in  authorizing 
what  came  to  be  popularly  known  as  the 
"Wilkes  Exploring  Expedition."  The 
purpose  of  the  expedition  in  part  was  to 
establish  the  latitudes  and  longitudes  of 
uncharted  places  in  distant  parts  of  the 
world  where  American  commerce  was 
extending,  and  in  part  to  investigate 


THE    DANA    HOUSE. 


present  time.  The  chief  peculiarity  of 
its  mechanism  is  in  the  method  of  rota- 
tion by  means  of  smoothly -turned 
spheres  of  iron.  The  dome  rests  on 
these  at  equi-distant  points,  and,  be- 
ing set  in  motion  by  suitable  gearing, 
the  iron  balls  sustaining  its  weight  roll 
along  a  level  circular  track  of  iron,  the 
circumference  of  which  is  equal  to  that 
of  the  dome.  The  method  was  unlike 
that  previously  in  use.  It  appears  to 
have  been  original  with  Mr.  Bond,  as  is 
perhaps  evinced  by  a  remark  in  his  re- 
port for  1848  referring  to  the  matter :  "If 
carefully  examined,  it  will  be  found  that 
this  arrangement  is  as  perfect  in  theory 
as  it  is  appropriate  and  convenient  in 
practice."  Experience  has  shown  that 
spheres  of  hard  bronze  are  more  service- 
able than  those  of  iron,  and  bronze  is  now 
used. 


natural  phenomena,  including  the  facts 
of  terrestrial  magnetism.  Having,  after 
much  delay,  got  an  adequate  appropria- 
tion, the  naval  department  employed  the 
best  available  talent  of  the  country  for 
the  conduct  of  the  enterprise. 

Mr.  Bond  was  engaged  to  make  at  his 
private  observatory  in  Dorchester, Mass., 
investigations  to  fix  a  zero  of  longitude, 
whence  final  reference  to  Greenwich 
might  be  had,  and  to  make  a  continuous 
record  of  magnetic  observations  at  Dor- 
chester for  comparison  with  like  records 
obtained  at  distant  points  by  the  expedi- 
tion itself.  As  preliminary  to  the  latter 
work,  Mr.  Bond  tested  in  an  isolated  ob- 
servatory in  Dorchester  the  magnetic  in- 
struments with  which  the  expedition 
was  to  be  equipped. 

Mr.  Bond's  talents  were  as  well  known 
at  Cambridge  as  at  Washington.  What 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


Mr.  Quincy  did  in  the  premises  can  best 
be  stated  in  his  own  words:  "Early  in 
the  year  1839,  the  exploring  expedi- 
tion then  being  in  the  Southern 
ocean,  it  occurred  to  the  president 
of  the  university  that  if  Mr.  Bond  could 
be  induced  to  transfer  his  residence  and 
apparatus  to  Cambridge  and  pursue  his 
observations  there,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  university,- it  would  have  an  impor- 
tant influence  in  clearing  the  way  for  an 
establishment  of  an  efficient  observatory 
in  connection  with  that  seminary,  by 
the  increase  of  the  apparatus  at  its  com- 
mand, by  the  interest  which  the  observa- 
tions making  by  Mr.  Bond  were  calcu- 
lated to  excite,  and,  by  drawing  the  at- 
tention of  the  citizens  of  Boston  and  its 
vicinity  to  the  great  inadequacy  of  the 
means  possessed  by  the  university  for 
efficient  astronomical  observations,  cre- 
ate a  desire  and  a  disposition  to  supply 
them." 

This  proposition,  Mr.  Quincy  says  in 
another  connection,  he  made  without 
having  consulted  with  the  corporation. 
That  body  sanctioned  his  action  by  mak- 
ing a  formal  contract  with  Mr.  Bond,  of 
date  Nov.  30,  1839,  the  agreement  on  Mr. 
Bond's  part  being  to  make  the  transfer 
as  proposed.  Steps  were  at  once  taken 
by  the  college  authorities  to  secure  a  sub- 
scription of  $100  each  from  30  different 
gentlemen,  which  sum  was  applied,  un- 
der Mr.  Bond's  direction,  in  alterations 
and  additions  to  a  dwelling  house  owned 
by  the  college  and  known  as  the  "Dana 
nouse."  It  still  stands  upon  its  original 
site  at  the  junction  of  Quincy  and  Har- 
vard streets,  the  lot  being  the  southeast 
corner  of  what  are  distinctively  called 
"the  college  grounds." 

The  cupola  which  crowns  the  roof  is  a 
reminder  and  proof  of  apart  of  these 
alterations ;  for  within  it  was  set  up  one 
of  the  telescopes  of  the  first  college  ob- 
servatory, the  cupola  when  constructed 
being  suitably  domed  for  the  purpose. 
Something  practical  in  astronomy  had  al- 
ways been  taught  in  the  college  course. 
In  this  way,  or  possibly  by  Mr.  Bond 
himself,  the  position  of  Harvard  Hall  on 
the  college  grounds  had  been  determined. 
Thus,  in  a  paper  published  by  him  in 
1833  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  American 
Academy,  he  gives  the  position  of  his  ob- 
servatory in  Dorchester  as  "0°-3'-15"  east 
of  Harvard  Hall  in  Cambridge." 

That  the  astronomical  equipment  pos- 
sessed by  the  college  before  Mr.  Bond's 
coming  did  not  amount  to  the  beginning 


of  a  proper  observatory,  sufficiently  ap- 
pears by  a  contemporary  letter  of  Prof. 
Joseph  Lovering,  written  in  response  to 
an  official  inquiry.  He  says  that  the  col- 
lege had  at  the  time  "no  instrument  of 
much  value  for  determining  either  time 
or  position,  and  no  place  more  conven- 
ient for  using  instruments  than  an  open 
field,  or  a  window  which  might  accident- 
ally open  in  the  right  direction."  He 
gives  the  inventory,  comprising  an  as- 
tronomical clock,  which,  he  says,  cannot 
be  relied  on  for  accurate  time ;  a  small 
transit  instrument,  which  at  one  time 
was  loaned  to  Dr.  Bowditch,  but 
returned,  he  having  found  it  of 
little  value;  two  reflecting  telescopes 
of  three  feet  and  two  feet  focal  length ; 
and  a  refractor  of  three  feet  focal,  which 
three,  he  says,  "answered  decently  well 
for  showing  the  moon,  Jupiter's  satel- 
lites, Saturn's  ring,  etc.,  to  the  students, 
but  were  very  imperfect  for  any  nice  ob- 
servation." These,  with  an  astronomi- 
cal quadrant  and  a  common  quadrant, 
complete  the  list.  The  list  of  instru- 
ments brought  by  Mr.  Bond  does  not  ap- 
pear in  the  printed  records,  but  in  the 
paper  above  referred  to  he  names  his  in-- 
struments  used  at  Dorchester  as  a  Gre- 
gorian reflector  of  30  inches  focus,  equa- 
torially  mounted,  an  achromatic  tele- 
scope of  40  inches  focus,  a  Borda's  circle, 
a  Ramsden's  sextant,  and  two  transit 
clocks.  The  clocks  he  describes  as  "ex- 
cellent," and  says  that  they  had  mer- 
curial pendulums. 

In  the  early  observations  of  Mr.  Bond 
at  Cambridge,  priority  was  given  to  the 
work  begun  at  Dorchester  for  the  naval 
department.  In  the  college  record  a 
considerable  part  of  the  routine  is  classed 
as  meteorology,  with  reference,  chiefly, 
to  the  earth's  magnetism.  The  scheme 
of  observation  in  this  department  was, 
however,  much  broadened,  and  in  this 
the  observatory  appears  to  have  per- 
formed its  first  notable  service  to  pure 
science  and  to  have  assumed  a  place  that 
gave  it  international  recognition.  For 
these  observations  the  best  known  appa- 
ratus was  procured  and  put  into  service 
in  a  building  on  the  college  grounds  set 
at  a  distance  from  the  Dana  house,  but 
connected  therewith  by  a  covered  way. 
It  was  known  as  the  "Lloyd  apparatus." 
It  consisted  chiefly  of  three  magneto- 
meters, one  for  indicating  declination, 
one  for  horizontal  force  and  the  third  for 
vertical  force. 

It  was  the  product  of  the  same  firm  in 


8 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


England  which  had  made  like  instru- 
ments for  the  British  government  for  use 
at  meteorological  stations  at  Greenwich, 
Eng.,  Toronto,  Can.,  St.  Helena,  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  Bombay,  Madras,  Singapore 
and  Van  Diemen's  Land.  The  magnetic 
observations  at  Cambridge  were  conduct- 
ed according  to  the  same  formula  as  that 
in  use  at  these  British  stations,  with  a 
purpose  of  co-operation.  In  this  cosmi- 
cal  investigation  the  German  Meteorolog- 
ical Association,  having  many  observa- 
tories under  its  direction,  and  the  Rus- 
sian government,  having  magnetic  sta- 
tions at  various  points  between  the  bor- 
ders of  China  and  the  Arctic  Circle, 
joined.  This  Lloyd  apparatus  was  the 


observatory.  Soon  afterwards  the  pres- 
ent observatory  grounds,  then  known  as 
"Summer  House  hill,"  were  bought. 

Up  to  this  time  astronomical  work  had 
been  carried  on  at  the  Dana  house  to  the 
extent  possible  with  the  few  instruments 
of  precision  at  command,  much  of  it  by 
Mr.  W.  C.  Bond,  Jr.,  whose  decease,  in 
1842,  was  regarded  a  loss  to  science.  The 
contract  of  the  senior  Mr.  Bond  with  the 
United  States  government  ended  in  1842, 
and  in  July  of  that  year  a  movement  was 
made  having  in  view  the  purchase  of  a 
first-class  telescope,  but  it  was  a  matter 
of  inquiry  as  to  cost,  etc.,  only.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances  what  was  thus 
sought  for,  a  proper  observatory  build- 


MAIN    OBSERVATORY    BUILDING,    SHOWING    THE    DIRECTOR'S    RESIDENCE 
AND    THE  GREAT    DOME. 


gift  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences,  by  vote  of  April  22,  1840, 
and  was  of  the  value  of  $1000. 

Many  interesting  particulars  of  the 
early  days  of  Harvard  College  observa- 
tory are  given  in  the  first  volume  of 
printed  annals  of  the  institution.  In  the 
reading  an  essential  fact  is  to  be  kept  in 
mind,  the  difference  of  the  pecuniary 
standards  of  that  and  the  present  time. 
The  writer  of  an  official  document  of 
1843,  was,  in  view  of  that  difference, 
neither  inexact  nor  ironical  when  he 
characterized  a  conditional  offer  of 
$5000  for  the  observatory,  made  that  year 
by  Hon.  David  Sears,  as  "a  munificent 
proposal."  It  was  soon  found  that  the 
Dana-house  site  would  serve  only  tempo- 
rarily, and  on  Sept.  4, 1841,  action  was 
taken  for  the  building  of  a  permanent 


ing  and  a  telescope  equal  to  the  more 
difficult  problems  of  astronomy,  would 
have  been  slowly  arrived  at. 

But  early  in  March,  1843,  the  great 
comet  of  that  year  suddenly  appeared  in 
the  evening  sky,  near  to  the  sun.  It  was 
an  astonishing phenomenon,  and  wrought 
the  popular  as  well  as  the  scientific 
mind  into  a  state  of  excitement. 

The  comet  had  passed  perihelion  on 
Feb.  27,  and  was  seen  at  one  place  in 
New  England  on  the  28th,  close  to  the 
sun.  During  its  brightest  period  it  was 
visible  in  the  daytime  at  one  place  in  this 
section  of  the  country  from  7.30  A.M.  to 
3P.M.,  when  clouds  intervened;  and  in 
Mexico  from  9  A.M.  till  sunset.  It  passed 
but  about  90,000  miles  from  the  sun's  sur- 
face and  through  more  than  300,000  miles 
of  the  sun's  corona,  its  velocity  then  be- 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


ing  350  miles  per  second.  Its  head  was 
small,  but  its  tail  large  and  brilliant. 
The  total  light  emitted  by  the  meteor  is 
stated  by  Prof.  Loomis  to  have  been 
equal  to  that  of  the  moon  at  midnight  in 
a  clear  sky.  By  the  telescope  its  tail 
could  be  traced  over  a  computed  distance 
of  108,000,000  miles,  so  that  had  it  been 
pointed  towards  the  earth  it  would  have 
passed  through  the  planet's  atmosphere 
and  15,000,000  miles  beyond. 

The  professor  names  as  its  notable 
characteristics  "its  small  perihelion  dis- 
tance, nearly  as  small  as  is  physically 
possible,  and  its  prodigious  length  of 
tail."  It  continued  visible  into  the  fol- 
lowing month.  It  is  known  in  the  books 
as  "tlie  great  comet  of  1843,"  but  for  rea- 
sons which  will  appear,  it  might  well  be 
called  "the  Harvard  comet."  The  friends 
of  the  young  institution  at  Cambridge 
perceived  that  the  moment  was  oppor- 
tune for  an  appeal  to  the  moneyed  public. 
The  prevalent  curiosity  as  to  the  visitor 
could  not  be  gratified  by  the  observers  at 
the  Dana  house. 

They  had  no  instruments  fit  for  the  oc- 
casion. An  altitude-and-azimuth  instru- 
ment, which  had  been  used  in  the  state 
survey  of  1831,  was  borrowed  and  mounted 
in  the  cupola,  and  thus,  on  March  9,  an 
observation  was  first  made ;  but  nothing 
came  of  the  endeavor,  it  being  found  im- 
possible to  secure  permanent  adjust- 
ments. The  next  thing  done  was  to  call 
a  meeting  of  citizens  in  Boston.  The 
chairman  was  Hon.  Abbot  Lawrence. 
Addresses  were  made  by  Hon.  John 
Pickering,  Prof.  Benjamin  Peirce,  Hon. 
William  Appleton  and  Hon.  S.  A.  Eliot. 
A  financial  committee  was  appointed, 
and  subscriptions  to  the  amount  of  $25,- 
000  were  obtained  in  Boston,  Salem,  New 
Bedford  and  Nantucket. 

Thus  encouraged,  the  official  board  of 
the  college  negotiated  for  the  purchase 
of  the  best  telescope  that  could  be  pro- 
duced in  Europe,  a  refractor  of  15  inches 
aperture,  equatorially  mounted,  the 
makers  being  Merz  &  Mahler  of  Munich. 
The  spot  for  building  a  massive  stone 
supporting  pier  on  Summer-house  hill 
was  fixed  Aug.  12,  1843,  and  ground  was 
Droken  for  the  work  on  Aug.  15. 

These  were  the  experiences  which 
Prof.  Benjamin  Peirce  had  in  mind 
when  in  later  years  he  spoke  in  eulogy 
of  Prof.  Bond,  then  deceased,  in  phrase 
which  is  both  of  historical  and  biographi- 
cal interest.  Having  mentioned  some 
of  the  early  difficulties,  he  said: 


"When,  in  1839,  Mr.  Bond  was  drawn  to 
Cambridge  by  the  strong  hand  of  Presi- 
dent Quincy,  when  the  cause  of  the  ob- 
servatory was  undertaken  by  the  un- 
flinching and  irresistible  vigor  of  our 
friend  J.  Ingersoll  Bowditch,  when  even 
the  heavens  came  to  our  assistance,  and 
that  wonderful  comet  of  1843  excited 
most  opportunely  a  universal  interest  in 
celestial  phenomena,— it  was  then  appar- 
ent that  the  affection  for  Mr.  Bond  was 
the  chief  strength  of  the  occasion,  and  to 
that  we  were  mainly  indebted  for  the 
successful  attempt  to  obtain  the  unriv- 
alled equatorial  and  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  the  observatory."  No  proper  bi- 
ography of  Mr.  Bond,  whose  career  was 
an  honor  to  his  country,  lias  ever  been 
published.  A  sketch,  the  facts  for  which 
have  largely  been  derived  from  original 
sources,  may  fittingly  be  given  as  the 
next  number  in  this  series. 


JI. 

A  casual  glance  at  the  circumstances  of 
the  beginning  of  the  famous  observatory 
in  the  neighboring  city  of  Cambridge 
will  show  that  a  most  important  con- 
tribution to  the  success  of  that  enterprise 
was  made  by  the  first  director  of  the  ob- 
servatory, Prof.  W.  C.  Bond.  The  more 
diligently  those  circumstances  are  stud- 
ied, the  stronger  will  be  the  conviction 
that  his  work,  while  it  was  that  of  de- 
signer and  organizer,  was  also  somewhat 
better  in  tho  sense  of  being  more  rare  in 
quality;  that  his  presence  and  enthu- 
siasm gave  the  institution  vitality.  The 
record  of  his  life  gives  him  title  to  rank 
among  eminent  Americans. 

William  C  ranch  Bond  was  born  in 
Portland,  Me.,  Sept.  9, 1789.  He  was  the 
youngest  son  of  William  and  Hannah 
(Cranch)  Bond,  who  were  natives  of  Eng- 
land. The  family  was  of  distinction 
there,  and  is  genealogically  traceable  to 
the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror,  or 
earlier.  The  Brandon  manor  is  said  to 
have  been  granted  by  that  monarch  to 
the  ancestor  of  this  line,  and  to  have  been 
held  by  the  family  through  many  gener- 
ations. William  Bond  was  born  in 
Plymouth,  Eng.  Richard  Cranch,  an 
uncle  of  Hannah,  settled  in  Brain- 
tree,  Mass.,  in  1751.  The  name,  in 
himself  and  his  descendants,  be- 
came distinguished  in  the  annals 
of  the  province  and  common- 
wealth. From  him  William  Bond  re- 
ceived information  which  induced  him 


10 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


to  emigrate  to  this  country.  He  located 
for  business  purposes  at  Portland,  then 
Falmouth,  and  engaged  in  cutting  ship- 
timber  at  Frenchman's  bay,  sending  the 
commodity  to  England.  He  rnnde  a  voy- 
age thence  to  England,  returning  with 
his  wife  and  elder  children.  The  timber 
business  proved  in  ths  end  un- 
profitable and  he  removed  to  Bos- 
ton in  1793,  where  he  established 
himself  in  his  vocation  of  clockmaker 
and  silversmith,  his  stand  being  at 
the  corner  of  Milk  and  Marlboro,  now 
Washington  street.  The  youth  of  Wil- 
liam C.  Bond  was,  according]}7,  spent  in 
Boston,  where  he  had  such  education  as 
the  common  schools  afforded.  Indeed, 


PROF.  W.  C.  BOND. 

that  he  did  not  have  fully  that  privilege, 
may  be  inferred  from  his  remark  quoted 
by  Josiah  Quincy,  that  pecuniary  re- 
strictions "obliged  me  to  become  an  ap- 
prentice to  my  father  before  I  had 
learned  the  multiplication  table."  Mainly 
he  was  self-taught,  though  doubtless  he 
derived  instruction  from  his  father,  who 
was  a  well-informed  man,  and  from  some 
of  the  Cranch  relatives,  who  were  of 
good  education.  The  traditions  of  the 
family  and  the  facts  of  his  career,  indi- 
cate his  mental  quality  to  have  been  that 
of  genius,  one  trait  of  which  is  that  it 
absorbs  congenial  knowledge  from  un- 
promising materials  and  amidst  adverse 
conditions. 


His  eldest  sister  wrote  of  him  as  hav- 
ing been,  at  tiie  age  of  14.  "a  slender  boy 
with  soft  gray  eyes  and  silky,  brown 
hair,  quick  to  observe,  j~et  shrinking 
from  notice,  and  sensitive  to  excess." 
She  adds,  in  reference  to  his  early-devel- 
oped tastes :  "The  first  that  I  remember, 
was  his  intense  anxiety  about  the  ex- 
pected total  eclipse  of  the  sun  of  June  K5, 
1806.  He  had  then  no  instrument  ot  his 
own,  but  watched  the  event  from  a 
house-top  on  Summer  street  through  a 
telescope  belonging  to  Mr.  Francis  Gray, 
to  which,  somehow,  he  got  access.  In  so 
doing  he  injured  his  eyes  and  for  a  long 
time  was  troubled  in  his  vision."  An 
elder  brother  writes  of  him  at  this 
early  period:  "He  was  th.3  mildest 
and  best-tempered  boy  I  ever  knew,  and 
his  remarkable  mechanical  genius  showed 
itself  very  early."  He  adds  that  in  de- 
vising and  making  bits  of  apparatus  that 
boys  use  in  their  sports,  William  Avas 
chief  among  his  comrades.  His  early 
apprenticeship  in  the  clock-making  busi- 
ness undoubtedly  gave  a  fortunate  disci- 
pline to  this  natural  ingenuity,  by  con- 
fining his  experiments  pretty  closely  to 
the  facilities  of  his  father's  workshop  as 
to  tools  and  materials. 

He  found  or  made  "idle  time"  enough 
before  he  was  15  years  old  to  construct  a 
reliable  shop-chronometer.  It  had  to  be 
a  fixture,  for  lacking  a  suitable  spring  he 
contrived  to  run  it  by  weights. 

When  he  Avas  about  16  years  of  age  he 
made  a  good  working  quadrant  out  of 
ebony  and  boxwood,  the  only  materials 
he  had.  His  son,  G.  P.  Bond,  wrote  of 
this  instrument,  years  afterwards:  "It  is 
no  rude  affair,  bit  every  part,  especially 
the  graduation,  the  most  difficult  of  all, 
shows  the  neatness,  patience,  and  accu- 
racy of  a  practised  artist.  A  better  wit- 
ness to  the  progress  he  had  already  made 
in  astronomy  could  not  be  desired.  It  is 
all  that  the  materials  would  admit  of, 
and  proves  that  he  must  have  been,  even 
then,  irrevocably  devoted  to  astronomy." 

How  these  "eccentricities  of  genius" 
were  looked  upon  by  the  senior  Mr.  Bon  1 
does  not  appear,  but,  at  any  rate,  Wil- 
liam was  made  a  member  of  the  firm 
about  the  date  of  his  majority,  and  forth- 
with the  closkmaking  business  was  ex- 
panded to  include  the  rating,  repairing 
and  making  of  chronometers.  Astrono- 
my could  now  go  hand  in  hand  with 
"business."  He  must  have  had  the 
means  of  ascertaining  the  true  local  time 
before  he  was  himself  owner  of  an  in 


HAKVAKD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


11 


strument  suited  to  that  purpose.  He  made 
his  first  seagoing  chronometer  in  1812,  ana 
it  was  the  first  made  in  America.  Its  en- 
graved trade  mark  was  "VVm.  C.  Bond, 
1812."  It  at  once  went  into  service,  and 
satisfactorily  stood  the  test  of  a  voyage 
to  and  from  the  East  Indies.  For  mak- 
ing this  he  had  a  working  model ;  the 
stationary  or  shop  chronometer  of  1804 
was  made  according  to  a  description  he 
found  in  an  old  French  book  of  a  chron- 
ometer used  by  La  Perouse,  the  naviga- 
tor. In  1S10  the  business  of  the  Bonds 
was  removed  to  Congress  street.  About 
the  same  time  the  family  removed  to 
Dorchester  where  for  a  while  they  occu- 
pied, as  tenants,  different  houses. 

Mr.  Bond  himself  said  in  his  later  years 
that  what  first  gave  him  a  determination 
for  astronomy  was  his  experience  of 
the  total  eclipse  of  1806.  Once  aroused, 
the  feeling  never  ceased  to  have  sway, 
and  it  modified  all  his  business  ambi- 
tions as  a  chronometer  maker.  But 
as  such  an  artisan  he  had  ex- 
cuse in  the  eyes  of  the  practical 
minded  for  his  loved  explorations 
into  the  starry  depths.  In  the  lack  of 
proper  instruments  his  earliest  observa- 
tions were  made  by  crude  methods, 
which  yet  gave  proof  of  his  originality 
and  of  the  fascination  which  the  study 
had  for  him.  It  was  soon  after  1811  chat 
he  first  gained  recognition  from  any  one 
competent  to  pass  judgment  upon  his 
essential  mental  qualities.  On  Sept.  4, 
1811,  Prof.  John  Farrar  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege first  caught  sight  of  a  comet  in  the 
western  sky.  He  appears  to  have  at 
once  notified  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bowditch  of 
Salem,  and  they  two,  and  a  few  others 
in  New  England  who  had  tele- 
scopes, traced  its  subsequent  prog- 
ress. Each  of  the  two  published  an  ac- 
count of  his  observations  in  the  Memoirs 
of  the  American  Academy.  Prof.  Farrar 
having  given  in  his  introductory  para- 
graph the  date  of  his  first  observation, 
adds  that  the  comet  had  been  seen  earlier 
by  Mr.  Bond  of  Dorchester,  whom  he 
calls  "William  Bond,  Jr  ,"  and  says  that 
Mr.  Bond  had  "obligingly  favored"  him 
with  the  following  notices: 

I  remarked  on  the  21st  of  April  a  faint, 
whitish  light  near  the  constellation 
Canis  Major,  projecting  a  tail  about  one 
degree  in  length,  and  set  down  its  place 
as  follows :  Right  ascension,  106° ;  decli- 
nation, 9°  S.  April  24,  right  ascension, 
108° ;  declination,  7°  or  8°  S.  Its  motion 
and  the  situation  of  its  tail  convinced  me 


that  it  was  a  comet.  I  noticed  it  several 
times  in  May,  and  supposed  that  its  mo- 
tion was  toward  the  western  part  of  the 
constellation  Leo. 

By  messages  coming  in  sailing  ships  it 
was  learned  subsequently  to  September 
that  the  comet  had  been  seen  in  Europe 
on  March  25.  Its  perihelion  passage  was 
September  12,  1811. 

The  elder  brother  already  quoted  says 
of  these  early  days :  "I  suppose  it  would 
cause  the  astronomer  royal  to  laugh 
could  he  see  the  first  transit  instrument 
used  by  us  at  Dorchester,  a  strip  of  b.ass 
nailed  to  the  east  end  of  the  house,  wiMi 
a  hole  in  it  to  see  a  fixed  star  and  note 
its  transit ;  this  in  1813.  When  we  moved 
into  the  Hawes  house,  he  procured  a 
good  granite  block ;  we  dug  a  deep  hole 
and  placed  it  at  the  west  end  of  the  house 
and  got  Mr.  Alger  to  cast  a  stand  for  the 
transit  instrument,  a  small  one,  which  I 
think  belonged  to  Harvard  College. 
From  this  time  he  began  to  live  among 
the  stars." 

The  facts  thus  recorded  of  the  begin- 
ning of  Mr.  Bond's  career  show  his  zeal 
and  watchfulness  as  an  amateur  in  as- 
tronomy, and  that  UP  to  the  date  of  the 
comet's  appearance,  and  later,  he  had  no 
personal  acquaintance  with  men  of  sci- 
ence in  the  vicinity,  since  he  informed 
none  of  them  of  what  he  had  seen. 
When,  months  afterwards,  Prof.  Farrar 
inquired  about  it,  the  young  discoverer 
was  able  to  report  from  his  memoranda 
no  more  than  the  degrees  of  position, 
without  the  minutes  and  seconds,  and  to 
say  that  he  "supposed"  the  comet  to  be 
moving  towards  the  constellation  Leo, 
circumstances  indicating  that  a  strip  of 
brass  with  a  hole  in  it  and  a  home-made 
boxwood  quadrant  were  all  that  was  as- 
tronomically in  use  at  Dorchester  as  late 
as  1811. 

That  this  experience  with  the  comet 
was  a  fortunate  turning  point '  in  Mr. 
Bond's  career  is  evinced  by  Prof, 
Farrar's  genial  recognition  in  the  paper 
published  in  the  organ  of  American 
Science,  where  he  might  excusably  have 
ignored  so  crude  a  record  as  that  which 
was  the  best  Mr.  Bond  could  supply,  and 
by  the  appearance  not  long  afterwards,  at 
the  west  end  of  the  Hawes  house  in 
Dorchester,  of  a  loaned  telescope  be- 
longing to  Harvard  College. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  whatever 
previously  had  been  lacking  of  opportun- 
ity to  gain  knowledge  of  the  technics  of 
astronomical  science  was  now  fully 


12 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


within  his  reach  and  that  henceforth  he 
he  had  the  best  possible  of  instructors 
and  counsellors  so  far  as  he  had  occa- 
sion for  any.  Mr.  George  P.  Bond 
writes  of  his  father:  "He  has  men- 
tioned the  names  of  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bow- 
ditch,  Prof.  Farrar  and  Tutor  (Jlapp 
as  those  from  whom  he  received  most 
encouragement  to  continue  the  cultiva- 
tion of  astronomy.  Upon  his  friend- 
ly intercourse  with  the  eminent  math- 
ematician and  astronomer  first  named 
he  often  dwelt  with  peculiar  pleas- 
ure and  warmth  of  feeling."  The 
name  of  one  other  of  the  godfathers  of 
the  young  scientist  is  entitled  to  be  men- 
tioned, that  of  Josiah  Quincy.  The  lady 
above  quoted  gives  an  account  of  the  set- 
ting up  of  the  first  telescope  at  Dorches- 
ter by  her  brother,  and  says  that  through 
it  could  be  seen  the  satellites  of  Jupiter 
and  the  rings  of  Saturn.  She  adds  that 
in  the  pursuit  of  astronomy  up  to  this 
period"he  had  had  no  assistance  whatever 
except  from  the  genial  kindness  of  Hon. 
Josiah  Quincy,  who  had  early  recognized 
the  future  astronomer  in  the  unpretend- 
ing boy  in  the  watchmaker's  shop  on  Con- 
gress street,  and  whose  kindness  and  en- 
couragement never  failed  throughout  the 
subsequent  years." 

That  these  men  found  their  patronage 
to  have  been  well  bestowed  is  manifest 
from  the  action  taken  four  years  after  the 
date  of  the  comet  by  the  college  in  mak- 
ing Mr  Bond  its  delegate  and  agent.  The 
board  of  that  year  consisted  of  President 
Kirkland,  John  Lathrop,  D.D.,  Christo- 
pher Gore,  LL.D.,  John  Davis,  LL.D., 
John  Lowell,  LL.D.,  and  John  Phillips. 
It  is  of  record  that  the  moving  spirits  in 
the  matter  were  Prof.  Farrar  and  Dr. 
Bowditch,  and  they  were  appointed  a 
committee  to  prepare  technical  written 
instructions  to  the  agent  as  to  the  gen- 
eral scope  of  his  inquiry. 

During  his  visit  abroad,  Mr.  Bond  mar- 
ried his  cousin,  Selina  Cranch,  of  Kings- 
bridge,  in  Devonshire,  the  date  being 
July  18,  1819.  Soon  after  his  return  he 
purchased  a  house  near  to  his  father's 
residence  in  Dorchester,  and  erected  on 
the  premises  a  small  wooden  building, 
which  he  carefully  equipped  as  an  astron- 
omical observatory.  Its  position  is  that 
meant  in  the  official  references  to  the 
observatory  at  Dorchester,  and  is  about 
45  feet  southerly  of  the  present  south 
line  of  Cottage  street,  and  360  feet  south- 
easterly of  the  centre  of  the  New  York  & 
New  England  railroad  bridge,  over  that 


street.  Here,  as  one  of  his  brief  biogra- 
phers remarks,  "no  eclipse  or  occulta- 
tion  escaped  him,  though  occupied  in 
business  during  the  day  in  Boston,"  and 
here  Mr.  Quincy  found  him  in  1839,  busy 
in  his  work  for  the  Navy  Department. 
The  period  which  had  elapsed  since  the 
setting  of  the  granite  block  and  tha  pois- 
ing upon  it  of  the  borrowed  telescope 
had  been  for  Mr.  Bond  one  of  constant 
and  rapid  advance  in  the  astronomer's 
art.  The  Cottage-street  observatory  was 
built  about  the  year  1823. 

Referring  to  the  period  between  1823, 
or  a  little  earlier,  and  1839,  Mr.  G.  P. 
Bond  writes  of  his  father:  "As  soon  as 
his  circumstances  permitted,  he  imported 
more  perfect  apparatus  from  Europe  and 
continued  to  add  to  his  collection  until  it 
was  the  best  in  the  country."  And  he 
adds  this  statement,  which  is  highly  sug- 
gestive as  respects  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  the  accomplished  and  successful 
chronometer  maker  entered  upon  the 
broader  and  loftier  mission  which  des- 
tiny had  in  reserve  for  him:  "When 
appointed  by  the  Navy  Department  to 
the  charge  of  astronomical  and  other  ob- 
servations, he  forthwith  laid  out  a  sum 
of  money  on  instruments  and  buildings 
more  than  ten  times  greater  than  the  an- 
nual salary  (to  continue  but  four  years), 
which  he  had  himself  proposed  as  an 
adequate  compensation  for  all  necessary 
expenses,  and  his  own  time,  besides." 

During  a  few  years  prior  to  1830.  he 
gathered  materials  for  investigating  the 
comparative  rates  of  chronometers  at 
sea  and  on  shore.  Subsequently  he  com- 
municated to  the  American  Academy 
the  results  reached,  and  in  this  paper 
effectually  disposed  of  the  scientific  ques- 
tion involved,  so  far  as  it  related  to  the 
interests  of  navigation.  The  authority 
for  this  statement  is  Mr.  G.  P.  Bond', 
who  also  says  that  about  the  same  time 
his  father  conducted  a  series  of  experi- 
ments to  ascertain  the  influence  of 
changes  of  temperature  in  the  presence 
of  large  surfaces  of  iron  upon  the  per- 
formance of  chronometers;  and  adds 
that  "although  the  conclusions  arrived 
at  were  at  variance  with  the  opinions  of 
men  high  in  authority  in  such  matters, 
they  are  now  known  to  be  correct." 

President  Quincy,  in  making  his  over- 
ture, was  dealing  with  no  novice,  and, 
certainly,  no  stranger.  Some  intimation 
of  what  Mr.  Bond  had  attained  to  is  con- 
tained in  the  remarks  of  Prof.  Benjamin 
Peirce  spoken  in  the  obituary  proceed- 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


13 


THE  BOKD  HOUSE,  DORCHESTER. 

View  looking  to  the  southwest.    The  Observatory  stood  contiguous  to  the  west  end. 


ings  of  the  American  Academy  in  1859, 
consequent  upon  Mr.  Bond's  decease, 
though  the  reference  is  to  a  longer  period. 
The  instrument  alluded  to  is  the  great 
equatorial  at  Cambridge.  Prof.  Peirce 
said:  "In  his  original  investigations  he 
naturally  restrained  himself  to  those 
forms  of  observation  which  were  fully 
within  the  reach  of  his  own  resources. 
He  did  not,  therefore,  seek  those  in- 
quiries which  could  only  be  accomplished 
by  long,  intricate,  and  profound  mathe- 
matical computations,  but  Dreferred 
those  which  were  purely  dependent  upon 
the  thorough  discipline  of  the  senses. 
He  consequently  availed  himself  less  of 
the  remarkable  capacity  of  his  instru- 
ment for  delicate  and  refined  measure- 
ments than  of  its  exquisite  optical  quali- 
ties. But  when  observations  were  re- 
quired which  must  be  passed  over  to  the 
computer,  his  skill  was  not  wanting  to 
the  occasion.  Thus,  in  conjunction  with 
Major  Graham,  he  made  that  choice  series 
of  observations  from  which  the  latitude 
of  the  observatory  was  determined." 

To  this  testimony  as  to  Prof.  Bond's 
skill  as  an  observer  maybe  added  that 
of  Mr.  G.  P,  Bond  as  to  his  diligence  and 
zeal:  "There  is  something  to  my  mind 
appalling  in  the  contemplation  of  my 
father's  labors,  from  the  time  when  he 
was  first  enabled  to  indulge  freely  his 
passion  for  observation.  The  accumu- 
lated volumes  filled  with  manuscript 
records  give  me  a  shudder  at  the  thought 


of  the  weary  frame  and  straining  eye, 
the  exposure,  and  the  long,  sleepless 
nights  that  they  suggest." 

Ex-President  Quincy,  upon  the  obitu- 
ary occasion  referred  to,  made  this  inter- 
esting statement  as  to  the  initiation  of  his 
project  for  Mr.  Bond's  removal  to  Cam- 
bridge: "This  proposal,  so  in  unison, 
with  his  pursuits  and  talents,  I  expected 
would  be  received  with  pleasure.  But  it 
was  far  otherwise.  In  the  spirit  of  that 
innate  modesty  which  predominated  in 
his  character,  and  apparently  cast  a 
shadow  over  all  his  excellent  qualities 
and  attainments,  Mr.  Bond  hesitated, 
doubted  his  qualifications  for  the  posi- 
tion. He  said  his  habits  were  not 
adapted  to  public  station ;  that  our  com- 
bined apparatus  would  be  small,  and  that 
something  great  might  be  expected ;  that 
he  preferred  independence  in  obscurity 
to  responsibility  in  an  elevated  position. 
He  raised  many  other  objections,  which 
need  not  here  be  repeated,  as  they  were 
overcome." 

At  the  date  of  this  interview  the  presi- 
dent found  Mr.  Bond  well  established  in 
a  profitable  manufacturing  business,  hap- 
pily situated  in  his  domestic  and  neigh- 
borhood surroundings,  with  an  avocation 
fascinating  enough  to  occupy  all  his 
leisure  and  a  fame  extensive  enough  to 
satisfy  his  own  modest  estimate  of  his 
abilities.  There  was  no  pecuniary  bet- 
terment for  Mr.  Bond  in  the  suggested 
change.  Mr.  Qumcy  could  only  offer  him 


14 


HISTORY   OF    THE 


what  he  had  already,  a  family  domicile ; 
so  that  the  proposal  might  warrant  an 
adaptation  of  Sidney  Smith's  famous 
phrase  and  be  described  as  an  invitation 
to  come  to  Cambridge  and  "cultivate 
astronomy  upon  a  little  oatmeal."  In  so 
phrasing  it  there  is  no  disparagement  of 
the  college ;  it  was  the  day  of  small  things, 
of  pennies,  not  dollars,  in  the  college 
treasury.  But  the  event  speaks  the  praises 
of  Mr.  Quincy,  whose  sagacity  was  un- 
fail.ng  and  before  whose  persuasiveness 
and  energy  difficulties  in  administration 
were  wont  to  give  way,  and  of  Mr.  Bond, 
whose  unselfishness  and  loyalty  to  science 
were  proof  against  pecuniary  considera- 
tions. In  mental  traits  each  was  in  many 
respects  the  complement  of  the  other,  and 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  these  two 
were  pre-eminently  the  founders  and 
builders  of  the  observatory. 

The  official  report  for  1846  states  that 
up  to  that  time  the  labors  of  Mr.  Bond 
had  been  "entirely  unrequited,  except  by 
the  gratification  of  his  love  of  science 
and  of  home,'*  and  suggests  that  this  de- 
votion to  the  institution  at  Cambridge 
was  the  more  marked  in  that  during  the 
preceding  spring  he  had  declined  "the 
almost  unlimited  offers  made  to  him  by 
the  administration  at  Washington  to  in- 
duce him  to  take  charge  of  the  observa- 
tory there."  It  is  known,  also,  that  fre- 
quent expenditures  of  his  own  money 
were  made  during  this  period  for  current 
expenses  and  for  things  convenient  in 
conducting  the  observatory,  sums  small 
severally,  no  doubt,  but  considerable 
in  the  total.  In  1846  a  sum  equal  to 
the  proposed  salaries  for  the  next  two 
years  was  subscribed  by  citizens  of 
Boston,  and  in  1840  the  official  board 
was  able  to  report  that  "through  a  be- 
quest of  $100,000  made  by  Edward  Brom- 
field  Phillips  they  should  thereafter  be 
relieved  from  anxiety  as  to  the  payment 
of  salaries  and  current  expenses." 
Various  official  documents  evince  that 
during  the  first  eight  years  Mr.  Bond  is 
to  be  regarded  not  in  the  character  of  an 
employee,  but  a  benefactor  of  the  college ; 
that  his  labors  were  deemed  by  those 
most  familiar  with  them  to  be  indispen- 
sable and  invaluable,  and  that  his  friend- 
ship for  the  college,  manifested  in  all 
ways,  and  especially  in  his  declination  of 
the  liberal  offers  coming  from  Washing- 
ton, was  appreciated  and  honored.  The 
date  of  Mr.  Bond's  appointment  as  direc- 
tor of  the  observatory  was  Feb.  12,  1840, 


though  the  confirmation  by  the  corpora- 
tion was  later.  He  was  given  the  honor- 
ary degree  of  A.M.,  by  Harvard  in  1842. 


III. 

In  resuming  consecutively  the  story  of 
the  half-century's  progress  of  Harvard 
College  Observatory,  which  was  inter- 
rupted in  the  preceding  number  to  give 
place  to  a  biographical  notice  of  Prof. 
W.  C.  Bond,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the 
period  of  his  official  term,  which  covered 
19  years,  was  fruitful  in  great  discoveries 
and  events  in  the  astronomical  depart- 
ment of  science.  Harvard  Observatory 
contributed  its  full  share,  though  the 
greatest  of  all  was  that  which  gave  fame 
to  Le  Yerrier,  the  French  astronomer, 
the  discovery  of  the  planet  Neptune. 
In  September,  1844,  the  observatory 
building  on  Summer  House  hill  had  been 
completed  to  the  extent  proposed  at  that 
time,  and  the  instruments  were  trans- 
ferred from  the  Dana  house. 

A  new  transit  instrument,  imported  by 
the  United  States  government  for  the 
use  of  the  Northeastern  Boundary  Com- 
mission, was  set  up  in  December,  and 
used  during  the  winter  in  observations 
for  ascertaining  the  latitude,  as  previous- 
ly described  in  the  quotation  from  Prof. 
Peirce.  The  results  were  collated  and 
discussed  by  Prof.  Peirce  in  the  memoirs 
of  the  American  Academy.  These 
were  the  first  notable  observations 
of  precision  at  the  new  observatory. 
The  longitude  was  also  determined  by 
the  most  accurate  method  then  known, 
observation  of  occultations  and  mocn 
culminations  and  comparison  of  a 
considerable  number  of  chronome- 
ters transported  to  and  from 
Greenwich  by  ocean  steamers.  In  the 
ultimate  determination  the  record 
made  by  several  hundred  chronometers 
thus  sent  to  and  fro,  and  observations  of 
occultations,  etc.,  in  Dorchester,  Cam- 
bridge, Brooklyn,  Philadelphia  and 
Washington,  ranging  through  many 
years,  were  brought  into  the  account. 
The  earliest  were  observations  made  in 
Philadelphia  in  1769.  After  the  laying 
of  the  Atlantic  cable  still  closer  compari- 
sons with  the  zero  of  Greenwich  were 
possible.  The  position  of  the  observa- 
tory as  finally  determined  and  now  offi- 


HAKVAKD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


15 


cially  of  record  is:  Longitude,  71°  7' 
44.85,"  west;  latitude,  42°  22'  47.6", 
north.  As  showing  the  error  of  the  best 
attainable  results  by  use  of  chronome- 
ters it  may  be  remarked  that  by  that 
method  the  central  tower  of  the  observa- 
tory was  located  at  a  point  on  the  lawn 
half  way  between  the  front  door  of  the 
director's  dwelling-house  and  Garden 
street.  The  discrepancy  is  about  320 
feet. 

About  the  time  of  the  first  determina 
tion  Commodore  Owen  of  the  British 
Navy  was  making  an  official  survey  of 
the  coast  of  New  Brunswick  and  Nova 
Scotia.  Having  confidence  in  what  had 
been  done  at  Cambridge  he  took  that  sta- 
tion for  his  zero  in  preparing  his  official 
report,  ultimate  reference  being  made  to 
Greenwich.  The  first  importation  of 
chronometers  appears  to  have  been  made 
jointly  by  Prof.  Bond  and  Commodore 
Owen.  When  the  report  was  submitted 
it  was  challenged  by  some  of  the  British 
Board  of  Admiralty,  who  believed  that 
the  longitude  of  Halifax  was  better 
known.  In  due  course  Prof.  Bond  was 
inquired  of,  and  his  letter  addressed  to 
the  board  of  admiralty,  in  explanation 
of  the  technicalities,  proved  convincing 
and  its  conclusions  were  cordially  ac- 
cepted, with  thanks  by  Admiral  Beau- 
fort on  behalf  of  the  board.  The  officers- 
in-chief  of  the  United  States  Coast  Sur- 
vey, and  of  the  exploring  expedition  sev- 
erally adopted  the  Cambridge  meridian 
as  the  zero  in  preparing  their  official  re- 
ports. 

A  new  instrument  purchased  by  the 
observatory,  a  2j-inch  equatorial,  per- 
mitted accurate  observations  to  be  made 
of  the  solar  eclipses  of  1845  and  1846,  the 
comets  of  the  same  years,  the  transit  of 
Mercury  in  1845  and  of  the  newly  discov- 
ered planet  Neptune, 

The  15- inch  equatorial  was  set  up  on 
June  23  and  24,  1847.  Certain  nebulae 
and  the  planet  Saturn  were  the  first  sub- 
jects of  study.  Discoveries  of  import- 
ance were  made  in  each  field  of  investi- 
gation. The  report  of  the  visiting  com- 
mittee for  1848  notes  the  discovery  by 
Prof.  Bond  on  Sept.  10  of  that  year  of 
the  eighth  satellite  of  Saturn,  and  speaks 
of  it  as  "the  only  addition  to  the  solar 
system  ever  made  on  the  continent  of 
America.'* 

The  few  years  immediately  following 
the  date  of  the  great  telescope  may  be 
called  the  romantic  period  in  the  history 
of  the  observatory.  There  was  no  instru- 


ment on  this  continent  to  be  compared  to 
it,  and  it  had  but  one  equal  in  Europe. 

While  the  director  of  the  observatory 
kept  cool  enough  to  utilize  it  to  the  ut- 
most, he  manifestly  shared  in  the  enthu- 
siasm. One  of  the  earliest  to  inquire 
what  could  be  seen  by  it  was  Edward 
Everett,  president  of  the  college  from 
1846.  Prof.  Bond  responded  by  letter  on 
July  26, 1847,  named  several  matters  and 
ended  by  saying :  "But  I  must  recollect 
that  you  require  of  me  only  a  brief  ac- 
count of  our  telescope.  The  objects  re- 
vealed to  us  by  this  excellent  instrument 
are  so  numerous  and  interesting  that  it  is 
difficult  to  know  where  to  stop."  On 
Sept.  22  following  Prof.  Bond  wrote  to 
the  president:  ''You  will  rejoice  with 
me  that  the  great  nebula  in  Orion  has 
yielded  to  the  powers  of  our  incom- 
parable telescope." 

He  explains  the  reason  for  his  rejoicing 
by  saying  that  this  nebula  and  that  of 
Andromeda  had  hitherto  been  the  strong- 
holds of  the  "nebular  theory,"  or  the 
theory  that  the  nebulpe  are  masses  of 
matter  in  process  of  condensation  into 
systems. 

Now,  the  mass  in  Orion  which,  he  said, 
had  defied  the  telescopes  of  both  the 
Herschels,  and,  at  first,  that  of  Lord 
Rosse,  had  been  resolved  into  innumer- 
able distinct  points  ot  light,  or  separate 
stars,  by  the  Cambridge  refractor,  whose 
only  competitor  in  the  search  was  Lord 
Rosse's  instrument,  "the  largest  reflector 
in  the  world." 

The  phrase  "incomparable  telescope" 
was  warranted.  Nor  does  the  didactic 
suggestion  of  the  proverb  about  the  new 
broom  apply;  for  more  than  30  years 
afterwards  the  present  director  of  the 
observatory  had  occasion  to  say:  "In 
1877  besides  the  photometric  measures 
of  the  satellites  of  Mars,  a  series  of 
measures  for  their  positions  was  also 
made.  The  num  ber  of  these  observations 
was  second  only  to  that  obtained  with 
the  great  telescope  at  Washington."  Of 
the  work  done  two  years  later,  he  says : 
"Of  the  satellites  of  Mars  1348  measure- 
ments were  made,  Deimos  being  last  seen 
at  this  observatory  as  it  gradually  re- 
ceded from  the  earth.  This  is  remark- 
able, as  our  telescope  has  entered  into 
competition  with  the  largest  telescopes 
of  the  world,  some  of  which  admitted 
two  or  three  times  as  much  light." 

On  Nov.  7,  1848,  a  transit  circle  was  set 
up  and  it  completed  the  set  of  new  in- 
struments at  first  proposed  for  the  ob- 


16 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


servatory.  Previous  to  this  date  two 
new  "comet  seekers"  had  been  received, 
the  gifts  respectively  of  President  Quincy 
and  Mr.  J.  I.  Bowditch.  With  these  in 
the  six  years  beginning  with  1845  the 
original  discovery  of  ten  comets  was 
made  by  Mr.  G.  P.  Bond.  In  his  report 
for  1846  Prof.  Bond  says  that  during  that 


tory  in  this  early  period.  The  great 
telescope  was  poised  at  a  height  of  13 
feet  from  the  floor  of  the  dome,  and  its 
sweep  was  from  three  degrees  beyond 
the  zenith  to  as  many  below  the  horizon. 
The  visual  end  of  the  instrument  there- 
fore might  need  to  be  set  at  any  point 
along  an  arc  of  90  degrees,  and  an  ob- 


W.   C.   BOND'S   OBSERVATORY  CHAIR. 


year  stellar  and  lunar  observations  had 
been  made  in  co-operation  with  like  work 
done  by  observers  of  the  United  States 
Coast  Survey  at  West  Point,  Philadelphia 
and  Nantucket,  to  determine  longitudes 
for  the  purposes  of  the  coast  survey. 

But  visions  of  the  sky  were  not  the 
only  matters  of  interest  at  the  observa- 


server  would  have  to  be  something  of  an 
acrobat  in  successfully  using  it  unless  a 
suitable  chair  could  be  obtained.  There 
was  none  in  the  world  that  filled  all  the 
requirements,  and  Prof.  Bond  invented 
and  made  one.  It  is  in  use,  unchanged,  to 
this  day,  and  by  means  of  its  ingeniously 
combined  wheels,  cogs  and  pulleys  the 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


17 


observer  can  quickly  and  easily  place 
himself  anywhere  along  the  vertical 
quarter  circle  and  horizontal  full  circle 
traversed  by  the  eye-piece  of  the  tele- 
scope. 

Prior  to  1845  a  transfer  of  12  chronome- 
ters to  and  from  Greenwich,  Eng.,  had 
been  made  by  Prof.  Bond  and  Commo- 
dore Owen,  for  the  determination  of  the 
longitude  of  the  observatory.  Other 
chronometer  expeditions  were  conducted 
subsequently  in  co-operation  with  the 
United  States  Coast  Survey,  the  final  one 
being  in  1855.  In  the  summing  up  of  re- 
sults, 723  independent  chronometer  re- 
cords were  used.  The  magnitude  of  this 
undertaking,  as  a  whole,  surpassed  any- 
thing ever  attempted  in  any  other 
country. 

In  his  report,  reviewing  the  year  1848, 
the  director  says ;  "Some  experiments 
made  with  the  daguerreotype  and  talbo- 
type  processes  for  obtaining  impressions 
of  the  sun's  image  formed  by  the  tele- 
scope have  not  been  attended  with  com- 
plete success ;  however,  we  do  not  despair 
of  ultimate  success." 

In  the  report  for  1850  he  is  able  to  say : 
"With  the  assistance  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Whip- 
pie,  daguerreotymst,  we  have  obtained 
several  impressions  of  the  star  Vega.  We 
have  reason  to  believe  this  to  be  the  first 
successful  experiment  ever  made  either 
in  this  country  or  abroad.  From  the  fa- 
cility with  which  these  were  executed 
with  the  aid  of  the  great  equatorial,  we 
were  encouraged  to  hope  for  further 
progress."  In  the  report  of  the  following 
year  he  speaks  of  pictures  of  the  moon 
and  stars  obtained  by  this  process,  and 
adds  with  reference  to  his  son's  official 
visit  to  Europe  that  year:  "Some  of 
these  daguerreotypes  taken  by  the  aid  of 
our  great  object  glass  excited  the  admir- 
ation of  eminent  men  in  Europe,  to 
whom  Mr.  G.  P.  Bond  gave  speci- 
mens. "  In  an  official  letter  he 
says  of  his  son's  visit  to  Paris :  "He  at- 
tended in  May  a  meeting  of  the  French 
Academy,  and  there  presented  a  daguer- 
reotype of  the  moon  taken  with  our  large 
telescope."  Other  specimens  were  placed 
in  the  great  exhibition  of  London,  or 
World's  fair,  of  that  year,  and  a  council 
medal  was  awarded  for  them. 

This  tour  iu  Europe  by  the  younger 
Mr.  Bond  makes  an  interesting  episode 
in  the  general  record.  He  was  every- 
where cordially  received  by  men  of 
science,  a  fact  attributable  in  part,  no 
doubt,  to  his  own  reputation,  but  more 


especially  to  his  being  the  representative 
of  the  new  observatory,  already  of  fame, 
established  in  the  distant  West. 

On  arriving  at  Cronstadt  he  was  sur- 
prised at  meeting  an  officer  of  the  Rus- 
sian government  who  had  instructions  to 
conduct  him  to  the  imperial  observatory 
at  Pulkova,  where,  during  his  stay  in 
Kussia,  he  was  made  the  guest  of  the 
director  of  the  observatory  and  given  all 
possible  attentions  and  facilities,  includ- 
the  "great  privilege"  of  practically 
manipulating  the  instruments.  Among 
these  was  the  great  telescope,  the  rival 
of  the  Harvard  equatorial.  During  the 
tour  he  visited  Sweden  and  saw  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun.  Among  those  from 
whom  he  had  friendly  receptions  were 
Baron  Humboldt,  Sir  John  Herschel, 
Sir  David  Brewster,  Sir  G.  B.  Airy,  Le 
Verrier,  Biot  Argelander,  Gauss  and 
Hansen;  also  Lord  Kosse,  whose  great 
telescope  he  had  opportunity  to  use. 

In  July,  1848,  the  wires  of  the  magnetic 
telegraph  were  connected  with  the  ob- 
servatory at  the  expense  of  the  coast 
survey,  for  determining  by  instant  com- 
munication the  longitude  of  certain  prin- 
cipal cities  in  the  United  States.  There 
are  suggestions  of  both  the  modern  and 
the  antique  world  in  the  statement  that 
in  this  first  experience  the  electrical  ap- 
paratus of  a  department  of  the  institu- 
tion founded  by  John  Harvard,  was  con- 
nected with  like  apparatus  in  an  observ- 
atory in  the  garden  of  Peter  Stuyvesant 
in  New  York  city.  These  electrical  ex- 
periments of  the  coast  survey  were  be- 
gun as  early  as  1844,  between  Washing- 
ton and  Baltimore. 

Various  improvements  of  method  had 
been  made,  and  that  most  approved  was 
followed  on  this  first  occasion  at  Cam- 
bridge. The  coast  survey  officer  in 
charge  had  for  his  assistants  Prof.  Bond 
at  Cambridge  and  Prof.  Loomis  in  New 
York.  An  official  letter  of  the  electrician 
of  the  Coast  Survey  Department  says: 
"During  these  experiments  Prof.  Bond 
conceived  the  idea  of  using  an  automatic 
circuit-interrupter." 

Some  question  of  priority  as  to  this 
suggestion  arose  in  later  years.  It  was 
doubtless  a  spontaneous  and  original 
thought  with  Prof.  Bond,  though  the 
suggestion  appears  to  have  been  made 
earlier  elsewhere,  but  it  had  not 
been  acted  upon  "from  apprehension 
of  injury  to  the  performance  of 
an  astronomical  clock  which  must  be 
used  for  the  purpose."  Experience 


18 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


proved  eventually  the  apprehension  to 
have  been  groundless ;  but  Prof.  Bond's 
suggestion  avoided  any  liability  of  the 
kind  by  proposing  that  an  astronomical 
clock  be  made  for  the  purpose. 

In  August,  1848,  he  received  authority 
to  have  such  a  clock  made  at  the  expense 
of  the  coast  survey.  Ke verting  to  the 
matter  in  a  subsequent  annual  report, 
Prcf .  Bond  says :  "I  caused  such  a  clock 
to  be  made,  and  it  is  found  to  answer 
perfectly  the  intended  purpose.  But 
another  and  far  more  serious  difficulty 
presented  itself  in  the  accurate  registry 
of  the  beats  of  the  clock  after  being 
transmitted  by  the  galvanic  circuit ;  and 
it  was  at  this  point  that  further  progress 


DAVID  SEARS. 

The  First  Donor  to  the  Observatory. 

in  the  application  of  this  method  to 
astronomical  observing  was  arrested." 

Experimenters  were  busy  at  Philadel- 
phia, Cincinnati,  and  elsewhere,  during 
the  two  years'  interval  in  attempts  to 
solve  this  concomitant  problem,  and  with 
very  considerable  success.  That  none  of 
these  devices  quite  filled  the  requirements 
is  manifest  by  the  fact  that  they  did  not 
go  into  general  use.  But  the  perfected 
apparatus  submitted  to  the  officer  of  the 
coast  survey  by  Prof.  Bond,  April  12, 
1850,  did  go  into  such  use.  This  instru- 
ment Prof.  Bond  stated  to  be  the  joint 
invention  of  himself  and  his  two  sons, 
George  P.  and  Richard  F.  Bond.  It  was 
named  at  first  from  one  of  its  peculiar 
parts,  the  "spring-governor,"  but  the 


more  comprehensive  title  of  "chrono- 
graph" was  later  applied  to  it. 

While  as  a  piece  of  mechanism,  it  was 
distinct  from  the  "circuit  interrupter," 
the  two  were  used  conjointly,  and  thus 
acting  in  combination  their  operation  in 
recording  became  known  soon  after- 
wards in  England  as  "the  American 
method."  By  this  method  the  errors 
suggested  by  the  term  "personal  equa- 
tion" are  greatly  diminished,  and  a  defi- 
niteness  of  record  is  attained,  which  per- 
mits the  recording  sheet  to  be  read  by 
the  eye  to  tenths  and  by  scale  and  lens  to 
hundredths  of  a  second.  The  successive 
sheets  are  the  primary  official  record,  and 
being  bound  into  volumes,  become  a  part 
of  the  permanent  archives. 

The  apparatus  was  at  once  put  to  use 
in  the  several  telegraphic  stations  of  the 
coast  survey;  and  one  of  the  circum- 
stances which  made  Mr.  G.  P.  Bond's 
tour  in  Europe  a  notable  one  was  its  ex- 
hibition for  the  first  time  there.  It  was 
shown  in  operation  and  explained  in  a 
lecture  by  him  before  the  Royal  Astro- 
nomical Society,  and  also  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science.  Through  the 
urgency  of  Sir  David  Brewster  and  others 
it  was  set  up  in  the  great  exhibition  at 
London  in  18">1,  where  a  medal  was 
awarded  for  it.  It  had  the  highest  award 
of  the  Massachusetts  Mechanic  Associ- 
ation, a  gold  medal.  It  was  adopted  at 
the  Greenwich  observatory  soon  after 
Mr.  Bond's  exhibition  of  his  model,  and 
speedily  throughout  Europe. 

Soon  after  the  electrical  experiments 
ol  1848  at  the  observatory  the  wire  was 
put  into  use  to  transmit  to  Boston  and 
different  railway  points,  signals  giving 
the  true  local  time,  these  signals  being 
electrically  responsive  to  the  movement 
of  an  astronomical  clock  in  the  observa- 
tory, the  method  of  transmission  being 
that  of  the  "circuit  interrupter."  This 
system  was  at  once  adopted  in  England, 
wire  connections  being  made  with  a  clock 
in  Greenwich  Observatory.  This  time 
service  of  the  Harvard  Observatory, 
though  continued  during  the  interme- 
diate period,  was  not  organized  as  at 
present  until  1872. 

In  1852  the  officers  of  Harvard  Obser- 
vatory co-operated  with  Captain  Charles 
Wilkes  in  experiments  for  ascertaining 
the  velocity  of  sound  under  different 
atmospheric  conditions.  In  these  tests 
cannon  were  fired  near  the  observatory, 
at  the  arsenal  in  Watertown,  at  the  navy 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


19 


yard  in  Charlestown  and  at  Fort  Inde- 
pendence in  the  harbor,  the  central  ob- 
serving point  being  the  cupola  of  the 
State  House  in  Boston,  where  Captain 
Wilkes  took  his  station.  These  experi- 
ments had  immediate  reference  to  a  re- 
duction into  proper  form  of  data  obtained 
by  the  exploring  expedition,  wherein 
Captain  Wilkes  had  caused  surveys  of 
islands  and  groups  in  remote  seas  to  be 
made  by  sound.  In  these  surveys,  dis- 
tancas  between  points  whence  angles 
were  projected  were  determined  by  the 
firing  of  cannon  at  those  points. 

In  1855  an  endowment  of  $10,000  was 
made  by  ex-President  Quincy  as  a  me- 
morial of  his  father,  Josiah  Quincy,  a 
patriot  of  the  revolution.  This  fund  was 
specifically  applied  to  the  publication  of 
annals  of  the  observatory.  The  first 
voiume  was  issued  in  1856  and  comprised 
a  review  of  the  work  of  the  preceding 
years,  so  that  the  series  of  which  it  is 
the  initial  number  makes  a  continuous 
record  from  the  beginning.  The  series 
now  numbers  nearly  25  volumes.  The 
decease  of  Prof.  W.  C.  Bond  occurred 
Jan.  29,  1G59. 


IV. 

George  Phillips  Bond  was  the  second 
director  of  Harvard  College  observatory, 
being  the  successor  of  his  father,  Prof. 
W.  C.  Bond.  The  date  of  his  appoint- 
ment was  1859.  He  was  born  in  Dor- 
chester, Mass.,  May  20, 1825,  and  gradu- 
ated at  Harvard  in  1845.  Thenceforth 
until  his  decease  Feb.  17,  1865,  he  was  in 
the  constant  service  of  the  observatory. 
Prior  to  his  taking  the  chief  office  his 
labors  as  assistant  had  gained  for  him  a 
professional  reputation ;  he  had  shared 
with  his  father  the  heavy  task  of  organ- 
izing the  observatory  and  carrying  it  on 
with  slender  means;  he  was  familiar 
with  its  routine,  and  both  by  academical 
and  practical  training  was  peculiarly 
qualified  for  the  position. 

His  professional  record  therefore  is  not 
to  be  limited  to  his  own  term  as  director. 
The  computations  required  in  the  prepar- 
ation of  the  three  early  volumes  of  the 
annals  were  to  a  great  extent  his  work, 
and  those  pertaining  to  the  chronometric 
expeditions  between  Boston  and  Liver- 
pool, were  wholly  Dy  him.  He  was  the 


discoverer  of  the  da.k  interior  ring  of 
Saturn,  one  of  tlie  first  revelations  of  the 
great  telescope,  and  discoverer  also,  as 
already  stated,  of  ten  comets  within  a 
brief  period  of  years.  In  this  cometary 
work  it  was  his  practice  to  sweep  the 
whole  visible  heavens  once  every  month. 

His  observations  of  Saturn  led  to  the 
adoption  of  a  new  theory  as  to  the  con- 
stitution of  the  rings.  During  his  term 
systematic  observations  were  made  of 
certain  nebula?,  particularly  that  in 
Orion.  He  conducted  a  series  of  zone 
observations  of  faint  stars  near  the  equa- 
tor, prepared  a  plan  of  observation  and 
reduction,  and  with  his  own  hand  gradu- 
ated the  mica  scales  used  in  the  work. 

In  1860  he  made  an  investigation  of  the 
brightness  of  certain  celestial  objects, 
including  the  moon  and  the  planets,  the 
results  of  which  have  a  special  value  but 
are  not  identified  with  the  Harvard  pho- 
tometrioal  series  of  later  years,  which 
relates  to  fixed  stars  only.  During  his 
term  the  formation  of  a  star  catalogue 
was  begun,  the  observations  being  made 
with  the  meridian  circle  and  in  right  as- 
cension only,  and  much  progress  was 
made  in  picturing  celestial  objects  by  the 
camera,  the  process  having,  with  the  dis- 
use of  Daguerre's  particular  mtthod, 
gained  the  generic  name  of  photography. 

The  prestige  of  the  beginning  and 
early  successes  of  astronomical  photogra- 
phy attaches  to  the  administration  of  the 
senior  Bond ;  but  his  son  shared  fully  in 
the  labors  of  thought,  contrivance  and 
manipulation  by  which  the  original  ex- 
periments were  conducted,  and  in  appre- 
ciation of  the  future  possibilities  to  sci- 
ence in  this  new  method  of  observation. 

One  evidence  of  this  appears  in  a  paper 
read  by  the  younger  Mr.  Bond  before  the 
American  Academy  on  May  12, 1857,  the 
immediate  occasion  for  its  presentation 
being  a  most  significant  discovery  made 
at  the  observatory  a  few  days  earlier. 

The  paper  says:  "Daguerreotype 
images  of  the  star  Vega  were  obtained  at 
the  observatory  of  Harvard  College  on 
July  17,  1850,  and  subsequently  impres- 
sions were  taken  from  the  double  star 
Castor,  exhibiting  an  elongated  disc,  but 
no  separation  of  its  two  components." 

"These  were  the  first,  and  until  very 
recently,  the  only  known  instances  of 
the  application  of  photography  to  the 
delineation  of  fixed  stars.  A  serious  diffi- 
culty was  interposed  to  further  progress 
by  the  want  of  suitable  apparatus  for 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


communicating  uniform  sidereal  motion 
to  the  telescope. 

"This  has  been  supplied  by  replacing 
the  original  clock  of  tiie  great  equatorial 
of  the  observatory  by  a  new  one,  oper- 
ating on  the  principle  of  the  soring  gov- 
ernor. Immediately  upon  its  comple- 
tion, a  new  series  of  experiments  was 
commenced.  These  have  been  success- 
ful in  transferring  to  the  plate  by  the 
collodian  process,  images  of  fixed  stars 


and  eleventh  magnitudes  as  has  already 
been  done  for  those  between  the  first  and 
fifth,  the  extension  given  to  our  present 
means  of  observation  would  be  an  ad- 
vanco  in  the  science  of  stellar  astron- 
omy of  which  it  would  scarcely  be  possi- 
ble to  exaggerate  the  importance/' 

Mr.  Bond  made  important  contribu- 
tions to  the  literature  of  the  science  both 
in  its  mathematical  and  practical  depart- 
ments. Among  the  more  notable 


THE  GOLD  MEDAL;  REVERSE  SHOWING  SIR  WILLIAM  HERSCHEL'S  40-FOOT 

TELESCOPE. 


to  the  fifth  magnitude,  inclusive,  with 
singular  and  unexpected  precision.  The 
most  remarkable  instances  of  success  are 
the  simultaneous  impressions  of  the 
group  of  stars  composed  of  Mizar  of  the 
second  magnitude,  its  companion  of  the 
fourth  and  Alcor  of  the  fifth  magnitude. 
The  following  measurements  of  the  an- 
gular distance  of  the  companion  from 
Mizar  were  taken  from  the  plates." 

A  tabulated  statement  follows  in  the 
paper,  giving  dates  from  April  27  to 
May  8,  with  measurements  from  13 
photographic  negatives  produced  on  the 
respective  dates.  The  mean  for  dis- 
tance is  14.49  seconds,  and  for  angle  of 
position,  147°. 80.  For  the  same  stars  ob- 
served in  the  usual  way,  Struve's  mean 
of  six  observations  is,  for  distance,  14.40 
seconds;  for  positions,  147°.  40. 

Mr.  Bond's  comments  are :  "The  pho- 
tographic method  has  thus  in  its  first 
efforts  attained  the  limit  of  accuracy,  be- 
yond which  it  is  not  expected  the  other 
can  ever  be  sensibly  advanced. 

"Should  photographic  impressions  be 
obtained  from  stars  between  the  sixth 


of  the  former  was  a  paper  on 
cometary  calculations  and  the  method  of 
mechanical  quadratures,  valuable  in  vari- 
ous respects,  and  notable  in  having  an- 
ticipated an  important  improvement 
afterward  given  independently  by  Encke ; 
also  a  paper  on  the  use  of  equivalent 
factors  in  the  method  of  least  squares. 
He  wrote  a  monograph  covering  observa- 
tions of  Donati's  comet  of  1858,  for  which 
he  was  awarded  the  gold  medal  of  the 
Eoyal  Astronomical  Society  and  was  the 
first  of  his  countrymen  to  obtain  that  dis- 
tinction. He  began  a  paper  on  the 
nebula  in  Orion,  which  he  did  not  live  to 
complete,  though  during  his  prolonged 
last  illness  he  continued  his  labors  upon 
it,  and  dictated  to  an  amanuensis  long 
after  strength  to  write  had  gone  from 
him. 

This  paper  was  afterwards  finished  by 
Prof.  T.  H.  Safford,  then  of  Harvard, 
now  of  Williams  College  observatory.  A 
biographer  says  of  Mr.  Bond:  '"Science 
to  him  was  not  a  pastime  but  a  serious 
calling,  to  be  pursued  with  the  utmost 
conscientiousness  and  singleness  of  pur- 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


21 


pose.  That  he  did  so  much  and  aid  it  so 
well,  during  the  few  years  allotted  to 
him,  must  have  been  partly  owing  to  an 


PRESIDENT    JOSIAH    QUINCY. 

extreme  reluctance  to  dissipate  his  pow- 
ers by  beginning  new  works  while  the 
old  were  still  unfinished."  He  received 
the  honorary  degree  of  A.  M.  from  Har- 
vard in  1853. 


V. 


Joseph  Winlock  was  the  third  director 
of  Harvard  College  observatory,  being 
appointed  in  1866.  He  was  born  in 
Shelby  county,  Ky.,  Feb.  6,  1826;  he 
graduated  at  Shelby  College  in  1845,  and 
was  professor  of  mathematics  and  as- 
tronomy there  until  1852.  He  was  subse- 
quently in  the  service  of  the  Naval 
Observatory  at  Washington,  and,  still 
later,  instructor  in  mathematics  at  the 
Naval  A  cademy  at  Annapolis.  At  differ- 
ent dates,  he  was  superintendent  of  the 
work  of  preparation  of  the  Nautical  Al- 
manac. He  continued  in  office  as  director 
of  the  observatory  until  his  decease, 
June  11,  1875. 

His  administration  appears  by  the 
record  to  have  been  one  of  various  ac- 
tivity. A  large  amount  of  improved  ap- 


paratus was  added  to  the  resources  of 
the  observatory,  partly  by  purchase  and 
partly  by  invention  and  making  on  the 
spot.  He  kept  up  the  reputation  of  the 
observatory,  which  has  never  failed  from 
the  start,  for  originality  and  ingenuity  in 
mechanical  devices.  It  was  during  his 
term  that  the  transmission  by  electricity 
of  the  true  solar  time  to  railroad  centres 
and  business  points  in  all  parts  of  New 
England  became  a  regular  part  of  the 
observatory  work,  and,  by  the  system 
which  he  organized,  compensation  was 
made  by  corporations  and  individuals 
whose  clocks  were  put  into  electrical 
connection  with 'that  at  the  observatory. 

A  considerable  revenue  has  thus  an- 
nually been  derived.  Other  electrical  ap- 
paratus of  the  observatory  was  modified 
and  improved.  A  "switch-board,"  tne 
device  of  his  predecessor  was  much 
elaborated  in  its  mechanism,  whereby 
the  electrical  current  was  made  more 
available  and  all  the  principal  instru- 
ments were  connected  at  will  with  the 
chronographs. 

In  1868  when  he  visited  Europe  he  pro- 
cured the  apparatus  of  a  meridian  circle 
of  the  latest  device,  the  lenses  being 
made  in  Cambridge.  In  setting  up  the 
instrument  he  saw  opportunity  to  in- 
troduce various  improvements  in  me- 
chanism. 

These  were  approved  by  experience 
and  went  into  general  use  elsewhere. 
Another  of  his  devices  was  "for  the  de- 
termination of  absolute  personal  equa- 
tion by  mechanical  means."  Other  con- 
trivances, either  wholly  original  or  inge- 
nious modifications  of  known  apparatus, 
were  an  attachment  to  the  spectroscope 
for  automatic  recording,  being  a  modi- 
fication of  the  chronograph :  a  combina- 
tion of  a  stationary  plane  mirror 
with  a  fixed  lens  of  great  focal 
length  —  from  30  to  40  feet  —  for 
photographing  the  sun;  a  later  im- 
provement of  this,  by  which  the  tele- 
scope was  reduced  to  a  single  fixed  lens 
of  long  focus  and  small  aperture,  chro- 
matic aberration  was  avoided  and  the 
image  on  the  plate  could  be  made  as  large 
as  was  convenient  for  measuring ;  and 
a  change  of  method  by  which  the  sun's 
image  could  be  taken  at  the  principal 
focus  of  the  object  glass  and  not  beyond 
an  eye-piece  used  to  enlarge  the  image. 

In  February,  1866,  when  he  took  charge 
of  the  observatory,  the  great  equatorial 
was  applied  to  a  series  of  observations  of 


22 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


double,  arid  especially  binary  stars.  This 
investigation  was  continued  as  steadily 
as  circumstances  would  permit  till  1872, 
and  the  results  appear  in  the  annals.  In 
1867  the  first  spectroscope  owned  by  the 
observatory  was  imported,  and  in  1869 
another.  Two  small  direct-vision  spectro- 
scopes were  also  procured  during  Prof. 
Winlock's  term. 

In  1870  the  new  meridian  circle,  a  su- 
perior instrument,  was  set  up,  and  on 
Xov.  10  of  that  year  was  begun  the  series 
of  observations  for  position  of  stars  in 
the  "Cambridge  zone,"  so  called,  or  that 
between  50°  north  and  55°  north  and  over- 
lapping 10'  upon  each  contiguous  zone. 


The  standard  in  using  this  instrument 
was  an  artificial  star  produced  by  lamp- 
light. 

During  this  terra  two  expeditions  were 
made  with  apparatus  for  observing  total 
eclipses  of  the  sun,  and  in  both  satisfac- 
tory results  were  obtained.  On  the  first 
occasion,  of  date  Aug.  7,  1869,  the  station 
was  at  Shelbyville,  Ky.,  and  on  the  sec- 
ond, of  date  Dec.  22,  1870,  at  Jerez  de  la 
Frontera,  in  Spain.  In  1867  daily  obser- 
vations in  terrestrial  magnetism  were 
made  at  the  observatory  for  the  purposes 
of  the  coast  survey.  In  March,  1869, 
experiments  for  determination  of  longi- 
tudes were  conducted  on  a  continental 


HARVARD  OBSERVATORY  STATION  IN  SPAIN. 


This  survey  was  a  joint  enterprise  con- 
ducted by  certain  of  the  great  observa- 
tories of  the  world,  that  of  Harvard  being 
one  of  the  two  in  this  country  having  a 
share  in  the  work.  On  July  4, 1870,  was 
begun  a  series  of  photographs  of  the  sun, 
and  the  work  was  continued  nearly  or 
quite  to  the  end  of  Prof.  Winlock's  term, 
many  hundred  photographs  being  com- 
prised in  the  list. 

In  September,  1871,  was  begun  an  elab- 
orate investigation  of  lunar  phenomena, 
which  continued  a  year.  ID  1871  an  ar- 
rangement was  made  with  the  coast  sur- 
vey by  which  a  series  of  photometric  ob- 
servations was  carried  through,  and  for 
this  a  Zbllner  astro-photometer  was  im- 
ported. The  work  wa^  continued  three 
years,  though  not  all  of  it  at  Cambridge. 
The  results  are  in  the  annals  in  1878. 


scale,  wire  connection  by  relays  being 
made  with  San  Francisco.  In  these  ex- 
periments apparatus  which  had  been 
modified  by  Prof.  Winlock  was  used  and 
by  this  method,  and  also  by  another 
which  was  applied,  it  proved  that  the 
time  of  passage  of  a  signal  from  Cam- 
bridge to  San  Francisco  through  the  wire 
and  six  relays  was  very  nearly  three- 
quarters  of  a  second.  Between  Dec.  13, 
1869,  and  the  summer  of  1872,  electric  sig- 
nals were  sent  by  the  Atlantic  cable  to 
and  from  Brest  in  France,  via  Duxbury, 
Mass. 

The  purpose  of  these  tests  was  to  es- 
tablish with  precision  the  difference  of 
longitude  between  America  and  Europe. 
Prof.  Winlock  supervised  the  work  of 
preparing  and  engraving  a  series  of 
plates  illustrating  remarkable  celestial 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


23 


objects.  These  gave  special  value  to  the 
volume  of  annals  in  which  they  ap- 
peared, causing  an  unprecedented  de- 
mand for  copies,  so  that  it  is  now  a  rare 
book.  His  publications  were  not  numer- 
ous, but  there  is  no  doubt  that  his  scholar- 
ship, versatility  and  wide  experience 
would  have  yielded  valuable  additions  to 
the  literature  of  science  had  his  life  been 
prolonged. 

The  means  at  command  during  his 
term  did  not  warrant  the  publication  of 
many  volumes  of  annals.  Though  for 
nearly  10  years  in  office  he  did  not  live  to 


PROF.  JOSEPH  WINLOCK. 

see  any  of  his  own  observations  pub- 
lished or  even  to  complete  the  work  of 
his  predecessors. 

During  the  term  the  permanent  funds 
of  the  observatory  were  increased  by  the 
bequest  of  James  Hay  ward  $20,000,  and 
that  of  James  Savage  $20,000.  In  1870  a 
subscription  of  $12,450  was  completed 
for  purchase  of  a  new  meridian  circle. 
In  the  preceding  term  a  gift  of  $10,000 
was  made  by  William  Sturgis  for  the 
publication  fund.  Prof.  Winlock  had 
the  honorary  degree  of  A.M.  from  Har- 
vard in  1868. 


VI. 

Edward  Charles  Pickering,  the  pres- 
ent director  of  the  observatory,  was  ap- 
pointed in  1876.  He  was  born  in  Boston 
and  is  of  the  Essex  family  of  the  name, 
Colonel  Timothy  Pickering  being  his 


great-grandfather.  He  is  a  graduate  of 
the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  of  the 
class  of  18ii5.  During  the  next  two  years 
he  was  a  teacher  of  mathematics  in  that 
department  of  Harvard  University. 
Later  and  up  to  the  time  of  his  appoint- 
ment as  director,  he  was  professor  of 
physics  at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

A  system  of  teaching  physics  called 
the  "laboratory  method"  was  introduced 
by  him  there,  and  his  text-book  illustra- 
tive of  the  method  has  to  a  great  extent 
been  adopted  by  like  institutes.  Astron- 
omy, as  a  department  of  physics,  came 
into  the  general  course,  and  the  atten- 
tion necessarily  given,  for  the  purposes 
of  instruction  in  the  institute,  to  the 
technics  of  that  subject,  and  to  demon- 
stration, served  as  preparation  and  dis- 
cipline for  the  official  responsibilities 
which  he  afterwards  assumed. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Nautical  Al- 
manac party  for  observing  in  Iowa  the 
total  solar  eclipse  of  1869,  and  was  in  like 
service  in  the  following  year  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  United  States  Coast  Survey 
party  which  observed  in  Spain  a  recur- 
rence of  that  event. 

When  he  came  to  the  directorship  he 
found  the  observatory  to  be  well  equipped 
as  to  instruments  and  its  small  working 
force  efficiently  employed.  Their  num- 
ber was  but  five  or  six,  which  was  all  the 
means  of  the  institution  permitted  of. 

Like  pecuniary  restrictions  continued 
until  1879,  when  a  subscription  was  com- 
pleted providing  for  the  institution, 
$5000  annually  for  five  years.  Since  then 
much  larger  gifts  have  been  bestowed 
and  the  instrumental  equipment,  in 
recent  years  especially,  has  been  what- 
ever the  latest  demands  or  suggestions  of 
science  called  for ;  the  observatory  staff 
has  been  augmented  from  time  to  time, till 
it  now  numbers  about  40  persons,  and  the 
field  of  observation  has  been  extended  to 
include  the  southern  hemisphere  of  stars. 

Upon  the  premises  at  Cambridge  where 
in  1876  stood  only  the  main  observatory 
and  a  lesser  adjunct  structure  are  now 
eight  or  ten  others,  a  cluster  of  small 
wooden  buildings,  domed  or  otherwise 
adapted  for  astronomical  uses,  eacfi  con- 
taining a  costly  instrument  of  the  most 
approved  device;  and  besides  these  a 
dwelling  house  has  been  transformed 
into  a  hall,  or  rather  a  workshop  of 
photography,  and  makes  the  northern- 
most structure  of  the  little  city  of  science 


24 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


which  has  been  set  upon  Summer  House 
hill. 

Upon  Mt.  Wilson,  in  California,  in 
north  latitude,  and  Mt.  Harvard,  in 
Peru,  in  south  latitude,  stand  other  un- 
pretentious buildings,  from  within  which 
observers  of  the  Harvard  corps  nightly 
search  through  the  translucent  upper 
atmosphere  of  those  regions  to  the  re- 
spective poles.  This  aggregation  of 
means  has  yielded  ample  returns ;  to  say 
which  is  to  signify  that  during  the  period 
under  consideration  the  institution  has 
made  a  noteworthy  record,  and  that  its 
affairs  have  been  guided  with  befitting 
skill  and  judgment. 

The  total  permanent  funds  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  term  amounted  to 
about  $170,000.  The  subscription  for 
five  years  was  intended  for  immediate 
expenditure.  At  the  end  of  that  period 
a  permanent  fund  of  $50,000  was  ob- 
tained in  like  manner.  In  1885  was  added 
to  the  permanent  funds  the  bequest  of 
Robert  Treat  Paine  of  his  whole  estate, 
of  which  $164,198  became  at  once  availa- 
ble. In  1886  was  made  the  first  of  a 
series  of  annual  gifts  of  large  sums  of 
money  by  Mrs.  Anna  P.  Draper  of 
New  York  as  a  memorial  of  her  hus- 
band, the  late  Prof.  Henry  Draper. 
These  gifts  have  constantly  been  ap- 
plied in  furtherance  of  photographical 
observation,  especially  in  that  line  of  in- 
vestigation which  Dr.  Draper  himself 
began  in  his  lifetime.  In  3887  the  bequest 
of  Uriah  A.  Boyden,  amounting  to  $238,- 
000,  became  available.  This  bequest  has 
conditions  providing  for  astronomical 
work  at  considerable  elevations  as  free 
as  possible  from  disturbing  or  obstruct- 
ing conditions  of  atmosphere.  The  in- 
come of  the  Paine  fund  may  be  applied 
generally. 

In  pursuing  the  inquiries  thus  sug- 
gested, and  others,  the  observatory  has 
adhered  to  its  traditions,  wherein  origi- 
nal investigation  has  been  directed  to  the 
physical  rather  than  the  mathematical 
side  of  astronomical  science. 

In  his  first  annual  report  the  present 
director  outlined  the  immediate  policy, 
in  the  then  restricted  state  of  the 
finances,  to  be  to  keep  employed  chiefly 
the  two  most  costly  and  effective  instru- 
ments, the  great  equatorial  and  the 
meridian  circle.  The  latter  was  already 
in  constant  use  in  the  work  of  the  Cam- 
bridge zone. 

With  reference  to  the  former,  the  re- 


port having  named  the  several  special- 
ties which  the  great  observatories  of  this 
country  had  taken,  each  to  itself,  said : 
"Photometry  offers  a  field  almost  wholly 
unexplored  with  large  telescopes  either 
in  this  country  or  abroad.  It  has  there- 
fore been  selected  as  that  to  which  the 
greater  portion  of  the  time  of  our  tele- 
scope will  be  devoted." 

The  investigation  thus  entered  upon, 
together  with  the  zone  observations  just 
mentioned,  and  the  continuation  by 
ampler  and  in  some  particulars  radically 
different  methods  of  investigations  in 
spectroscopy  and  photography,  have 
given  the  institution  a  wide  renown. 
But  hardly  less  conspicuous  are  certain 
other  achievements  in  the  Ions  list 
which  makes  the  complete  record.  With- 
out attempting  to  give  any  of  these  rank, 
still  less  to  repeat  the  list,  a  few  may 
here  be  mentioned  upon  the  ground  of 
their  presumed  popular  interest. 

In  1878  the  utility  of  the  time  signal 
service  was  increased  by  causing  a  time 
ball  to  be  dropped  every  day  at  exact 
noon  from  a  conspicuous  point  in  Boston 
within  view  of  the  shipping  of  the 
harbor.  The  time  was  that  of  the  meri- 
dian of  the  State  House  in  Boston.  When 
the  standard  or  75th  meridian  time  went 
into  general  use  the  practice  was  con- 
formed thereto.  Indeed,  the  terms  of  the 
proposition  might  be  reversed  so  as  to 
indicate  that,  in  the  final  determination, 
the  responsibility  was  put  upon  the  ob- 
servatory to  lead  off  in  the  matter. 

There  had  been  some  discussion  in  the 
public  prints  and  elsewhere  of  the  advisa- 
bility of  adopting  a  common  meridian 
time  for  large  areas.  In  the  report  of 
the  observatory  for  1878  the  theoretical 
presentation  of  the  case  which  had  been 
made  by  those  advocating  the  change 
was  sanctioned,  and  the  new  time  was 
recommended  as  sure  to  be  of  public  con- 
venience if  generally  accepted.  General 
consent  was  somewhat  slow  in  its  mani- 
festation, but  eventually  the  managers  of 
all  the  principal  railroads  of  New  Eng- 
land agreed  to  adopt  the  plan  if  the  time- 
signalling  system  of  the  observatory 
should  be  made  to  correspond  in  respect 
to  clock  connections,  time  ball,  etc. 

This  was  instantly  agreed  to,  and  with 
due  prior  public  notice  the  new  time  went 
into  use  Nov.  18,  1883,  and  the  Boston 
noon  ball  was  first  dropped  on  that  day 
at  exactly  five  hours  later  than  the  noon 
of  Greenwich. 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


25 


HARVARD  COLLEGE  OBSERVATORY. 


HARVARD  STATION  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


26 


HISTORY    OF   THE 


In  1880  the  full  routine  of  meteorologi- 
cal observation  was  abandoned,  as  sev- 
eral institutions  were  doing  like  work. 
The  record  of  the  observatory  in  meteor- 
ology, which  had  continuously  been  kept 
up  for  40  years,  was  reduced  to  proper 
form  for  printing,  and  was  published  in 
1889.  Certain  observations  of  this  kind 
have,  however,  been  continued  in  the  rec- 
ord to  the  present  date. 

In  1888  a  plan  of  co-operation  was 
agreed  upon  with  the  X.  E.  Meteorologi- 
cal Society  and  Mr.  A.  L.  Rotch  of  the 
Blue  Hill,  Mass.,  Observatory,  by  which 
their  results,  which  are  of  a  comprehen- 
sive character,  have  since  been  published 
in  the  annals  of  the  Harvard  Observa- 
tory. 

In  1877,  in  co-operation  with  Miss 
Mitchell  of  Yassar  College  Observatory 
and  her  assistants,  observations  were 
made  at  Cambridge  for  determining  the 
longitude  of  the  Yassar  Observatory. 
Between  Feb.  15,  1879,  and  Jan.  3, 1880, 
like  observations  were  made  in  co-opera- 
tion with  officers  of  the  Winchester  Ob- 
servatory of  Yale  College  to  ascertain 
the  longitude  of  that  institution.  Be- 
tween June  2  and  June  23,  1883,  similar 
work  was  done  to  fix  the  longitude  of 
McGill  Observatory  in  Montreal. 

In  the  summer  of  1888  ten  evenings  were 
given  for  observations  for  the  longitude 
of  Smith  College  in  Northampton.  The 
observers  were  Miss  Byrd,  teacher  of 
astronomy  at  that  college,  and  Miss 
Whitney,  professor  of  astronomy  at  Yas- 
sar College.  Harvard's  contribution  in 
the  affair  consisted  in  providing  facilities 
on  the  spot,  including  the  use  of  a  tran- 
sit instrument.  These  are  instances, 
which  among  others  go  to  show  that  be 
cause  of  infinite  painstaking  at  Harvard 
in  the  earlier  years  it  has  become  the 
Mecca  to  which  all  on  this  continent  who 
wish  to  be  perfectly  assured  in  the  mat- 
ter of  longitude  may  prudently  make  a 
pilgrimage. 

In  1881  an  arrangement  was  entered  into 
for  prompt  communication  as  to  unusual 
celestial  phenomena,  discoveries,  etc., 
among  astronomers  in  this  country  and 
in  Europe.  A  cipher  code,  the  invention 
of  Messrs.  S.  C.  Chandler  and  John 
Ritchie,  Jr., of  the  observatory  staff,  was 
put  into  use.  It  is  known  as  the  "Science 
Observer  Code,"  and  as  it  is  superior  in 
accuracy  to  former  codes  has  been 
widely  recognized.  In  1883  Harvard 
observatory  was  made  the  official  dis- 


tributing centre  for  this  class  of  news, 
by  consent  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute, 
which  had  previously  performed  the  ser- 
vice. 

Upon  the  occasion  of  the  transit  of 
Mercury  across  the  sun's  disk  in  May, 

1878,  all  the  available  telescopes  of  the 
observatory  were  put  to  use.    The   re- 
sults, which  included  many  photographs, 
were  satisfactory,  considering  the  un- 
favorable weather.    During  the  like  tran- 
sit of  Yenus,  on  Dec.  6,  1882,  six  tele- 
scopes being  in  use,  large  additions  were, 
made  to  the  important  data  which  plane- 
tory  events  of  this  kind  may  supply. 

In  August,  1886,  a  small  party  pro- 
vided with  instruments  belonging  to  the 
observatory  made  an  expedition  to  Gren- 
nada,  near  the  northern  coast  of  South 
America,  for  observation  of  the  total 
solar  eclipse  of  that  year.  The  expedi- 
tion was  in  charge  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Picker- 
ing, who  afterwards  became  a  member  of 
the  observatory  corps. 

On  Jan.  1. 1889,  a  large  party,  under 
the  same  direction,  observed  a  recurrence 
of  the  event  in  California.  The  observa- 
tions were  mainly  photographical.  Ex- 
cellent results  were  obtained  in  both 
cases,  though  less  in  amount  in  the 
former,  because  of  unfavorable  weather. 

Much  has  been  done  during  the  term 
in  comecary  investigation,  but  latterly 
comets  have  been  observed,  as  a  rule, 
only  immediately  upon  discovery  and 
towards  the  end  of  their  visible  period, 
or  after  they  had  got  beyond  the  reach 
of  any  but  the  most  powerful  teles- 
copes. 

In  the  summer  of  1883  the  director 
journeyed  in  Europe  and  visited  the 
principal  observatories  there.  In  the 
following  annual  report  he  names  as  an 
important  result  of  his  journey  the  ob- 
taining of  copies  of  unpublished  manu- 
scripts of  Argelander  and  Sir  William 
Herschel.  The  former  are  memoranda 
of  observations  of  variable  stars  and  the 
latter  of  observations  made  more  than 
100  years  ago  of  the  light  of  all  stars  of 
Flamsteed's  catalogue. 

The  work  on  the  Cambridge  zone  of 
stars  was  completed,  as  respects  the  pri- 
mary plan  of  observation,  on  Jan.  26, 

1879,  and  at  that  stage  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  largest  astronomical  under- 
takings ever   carried  through  in     this 
country. 

The  reduction  of  the  data  was  accom- 
plished in  1883,  but  as  was  expected,  a 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


27 


necessity  for  reobservation  appeared  in 
certain  cases.  This  work  was  done  be- 
tween Oct.  9,  1883  and  Aug.  9, 1884.  The 
observer  from  the  beginning  had  been 
Prof.  William  A.  Rogers.  He  resigned 
his  position  as  assistant  professor  in  the 
observatory  in  1886,  but  continued  to 
serve  as  editor  of  the  published  results. 
The  whole  series  makes  half  a  dozen  or 
more  volumes  ot  the  annals.  The  Eu- 
ropean supervisors  of  the  general  under- 
taking, well  pleased,  apparently,  with 
the  early  instalments  of  manuscript  re- 
turns, assigned  to  Harvard  the  work  of 
reobservation  of  another  zone,  that  be- 
tween 9°  50'  south  and  14°  10'  south. 
This  work  is  still  in  progress.  Each 
zone  comprises  about  8000  stars  or  nearly 
17,000  in  all. 

The  publications  of  the  observatory 
during  the  present  term  in  the  form  of 
annals,  and  as  contributions  by  members 
of  the  corps  to  various  journals  of  sci- 
ence, have  been  numerous  and  extensive. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  term  but  four 
volumes  of  annals  had  been  issued, 
though  about  an  equal  number  were  in 
some  stage  of  progress  in  the  printers' 
hands,  publication  having  gone  on  slow- 
ly from  lack  of  means.  At  the  pres- 
ent time  the  continuous  series  of  22  vol- 
umes has  been  issued,  excepting  the  sec- 
ond or  supplementary  parts  in  two  or 
three  instances.  These  parts  are  nearly 
ready,  and  the  manuscript  for  about  half 
a  dozen  more  volumes  in  regular  succes- 
sion has,  in  part  or  whole,  been  given  to 
the  printer. 

A  review  of  what  has  been  done  during 
the  present  term  in  the  departments  of 
photometry,  spectroscopy  and  photogra- 
phy will  be  comprised  in  the  next  and 
closing  number  of  this  series. 


VII. 

Agreeably  to  the  announcement  of  the 
annual  report  of  Harvard  College  Ob- 
servatory for  1877,  as  to  photometry,  a 
beginning  was  made  by  constructing  a 
photometer  suitable  to  be  attached  to 
the  great  telescope.  Other  photometers 
have  been  devised  at  different  times  for 
use  independently.  One  of  the  earliest 
was  applied  during  the  year  beginning 
Oct.  12,  1877,  in  measuring  the  light  of 
all  known  satellites  excepting  the  two 
inner  ones  of  Uranus,  which  are  too 


faint  to  be  discerned,  even  by  the  great 
telecope.  The  first  prolonged  observa- 
tion entered  upon  was  of  the  eclipses  of 
of  Jupiter's  satellites. 

As  there  are  four  satellites  and  as  the 
plane  of  their  orbits  is  nearly  the  same 
as  that  of  the  planet  itself,  eclipses  are 
frequent.  The  plan  proposed  the  obser- 
vation of  all  these  eclipses  visible  during 
a  revolution  of  Jupiter  around  the  sun, 
a  period  of  about  12  years.  The  work 
was  begun  June  23, 1878,  and  has  been 
regularly  pursued.  The  final  result  will 
be  of  the  highest  value  in  that,  among  its 
utilities  it  will  permit  a  new  and  inde- 
pendent computation  to  be  made  of  the 
earth's  distance  from  the  sun,  which  dis- 
tance is  a  prime  factor  in  theoretical  as- 
tronomy. 

Computations  hitherto  made,  based 
upon  data  derived  from  these  eclipses,  are 
not  authoritative,  because  of  disagree- 
ments among  different  observers  using 
different  telescopes,  and  because  of  de- 
fects in  the  method  of  observation. 

The  director's  report  for  1878  says: 
"Errors  of  this  kind  are  much  lessened 
by  photometric  observations  of  the  satel- 
lites as  they  gradually  enter  or  emerge 
from  the  shadow  of  Jupiter,  using  the 
planet  itself  or  another  satellite  as  a  stan- 
dard. Each  comparison  thus  obtained 
gives  an  independent  determination  of  the 
time  of  the  eclipse,  free  from  the  errors 
due  to  the  condition  of  the  air  or  the 
power  of  the  telescope  employed  and  less 
likely  to  be  affected  by  personal  equation 
than  the  observation  of  a  disappearance 
or  a  reappearance.  By  the  ordinary 
method  an  observation  during  twilight 
can  have  little  value,  while  good  pho- 
tometric observations  may  be  made  as 
well  then  as  at  any  other  time.  It  is 
even  possible  to  make  them  before  sun- 
set." 

In  1879  a  work  of  magnitude  was  be- 
gun—the photometric  observation  of  all 
stars  down  to  those  of  the  sixth  masrni- 
tude  visible  in  this  latitude.  For  greater 
facility,  and  particularly  to  avoid  loss  of 
time  in  identifying  stars  of  small  magni- 
tude, it  was  decided  to  make  a  new  de- 
parture in  method  and  in  construction 
of  an  instrument.  The  new  instrument 
was  called  the  meridian  photometer,  and 
stars  were  observed  by  it  only  when  near 
the  meridian.  The  position  of  any  star 
being  well  known,  the  time  of  its  ap- 
pearance in  the  field  of  the  telescope 
could  be  foreseen. 


28 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


Each  that  was  desired  for  a  particular 
night  had,  therefore,  only  to  be  waited 
for,  not  sought  for.  The  original  instru- 
ment consisted  of  a  fixed  horizontal  tele- 
scope pointed  west  and  having  two  ob- 
jectives. 

The  light  of  the  pole  star,  which  was 
taken  for  the  standard  or  unit  of  meas- 
urement, was  reflected  by  a  prism  into 
one  object  glass,  and  that  of  the  star  to 
be  measured  into  the  other.  The  light 
of  the  brighter  star  was  then  reduced  to 
exactly  that  of  the  fainter  by  the  turning 


sive,  between  30°  south  and  the  southern 
pole,  was  begun.  Thus  the  facts  relating 
to  all  the  stars  in  the  sky  of  these  classi- 
fications will  be  embodied  in  the  final  re- 
sult. 

The  record,  whicli  will  comprise  sev- 
eral volumes,  one  or  more  of  which  have 
already  been  published,  will  have  an 
identity  throughout  as  respects  the 
method,  the  instrument,  and  the  unit  of 
measurement.  It  will  be  authoritative 
as  a  text  book  or  series  of  text  books, 
and  will  enhance  the  value  for  reference, 


HAKVARD    OBSERVING    STATION    AT    WILLOWS,   CAL.,    JANUARY    1,    1889. 


of  a  screw  having  a  register  attached. 
The  indication  of  the  register  gave  the 
measure,  which  was  confirmed  by  repeat- 
ed observations.  Telescopes  mounted  in 
the  ordinary  way  continued  to  be  used  in 
other  branches  of  photometric  work. 

The  photometric  survey  of  the  sixth 
magnitude  and  brighter  stars  was  com- 
pleted Aug.  25,  1881.  In  1882  a  new  and 
more  powerful  meridian  instrument  was 
constructed  and  a  photometric  survey  of 
a  list  of  about  21,000  stars,  from  the 
sixth  to  the  ninth  magnitude,  was 
entered  upon.  This  work  was  finished 
Sept.  29, 1888,  and  soon  afterwards  the 
instrument,  with  others,  was  sent  to 
Peru  in  charge  of  Mr.  S.  1.  Bailey  of  the 
observatory  corps,  where,  May  11,  1889,  a 
corresponding  survey  of  the  stars,  from 
the  first  to  the  ninth  magnitude,  inclu- 


and  comparison  of  various  records  of  the 
light  of  stars,  both  those  of  modern  and 
ancient  date. 

The  successful  working  of  the  two 
meridian  photometers  led  to  the  con- 
struction of  one  still  more  powerful,  hav- 
ing an  aperture  of  12  inches.  The  first 
was  of  1|  inch  aperture,  and  the  second 
of  four  inches. 

The  three  differ  somewhat  in  mechan- 
ism, but  are  the  same  in  principle.  The 
12-inch  is  called  by  distinction  the  "hor- 
izontal telescope."  It  will  be  available 
in  case  a  photometric  survey  of  stars  of 
fainter  magnitudes  shall  be  undertaken, 
but  its  use  is  not  limited  to  photometry. 

In  1879,  a  photometer  was  devised  for 
measuring  the  light  of  nebulae,  thus  ap- 
plying to  these  objects  and  to  stars  the 
same  unit  and  scale.  In  1881,  photo- 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


29 


metric  observations  of  certain  bright 
parts  of  the  moon,  were  mafle  for  the 
Selenographical  Society  of  England,  the 
particular  parts  being  selected  by  that 
society.  It  thus  was  shown  that  the 
lunar  scale  of  light  in  common  use  may 
be  closely  expressed  in  terms  of  stellar 
magnitude,  each  degree  of  the  lunar 
scale  answering  to  six-tenths  of  a  mag- 
nitude. Photometry  has  been  very  ex- 
tensively applied  at  Harvard  in  study  of 
variable  stars. 

A  history  of  any  department  of  practi- 
cal astronomy,  written  from  the  point  of 


one  of  the  satellites  as  thus  seen.  Five 
or  six  different  mechanics  were  employed 
to  drill  in  a  piece  of  metal  a  hole,  making 
a  true  circle,  and  small  enough  to  pro- 
duce the  equality  sought  for  by  suffi- 
ciently diminishing  the  light  of  the 
planet.  It  may  be  remarked  that  one  of 
those  who  succeeded  best  had  already, 
for  his  own  purposes,  managed  to  drill  a 
hole,  lengthwise,  through  a  fine  cambric 
needle,  making  a  steel  tube  of  it. 

What  he  made  for  Prof.  Pickering  was 
a  hole  in  a  steel  plate,  the  diameter  of 
which  was  one  eighteen  hundredth 


HARVARD    OBSERVING     STATION    IN    PERU. 


view  of  a  mechanician,  could  hardly  fail 
to  be  of  interest.  Among  the  curious  ex- 
periences at  Harvard  in  the  line  of  pho- 
tometry is  one  which  illustrates  this 
point,  and,  at  the  same  time,  indicates 
the  refinements  in  observation  which  are 
resorted  to,  and  demonstrates  one  of  the 
utilities  of  the  photometric  method. 

In  1877  announcement  was  made 
of  the  discovery  at  Washington  of 
two  satellites  of  the  planet  Mars. 
The  Harvard  telescope  being  applied 
they  were  after  a  little  effort  descried  as 
two  faint  points  of  light,  showing  no 
visible  disks.  To  ascertain  the  diameter 
of  each  satellite  might  therefore  seem 
impossible:  but  it  was  done,  approxi- 
mately, by  the  photometric  method. 

The  mechanical  problem  was  to  reduce 
the  light  of  the  planet  as  seen  in  the 
telescope  to  an  equality  with  the  light  of 


(1-1800)  of  an  inch.  It  was  so  nearly  cir- 
cular that  the  various  diameters,  in- 
cluding errors  of  measurement,  onlv  dif- 
fered one  one  hundred  thousandth 
(1-100,000)  of  an  inch. 

Other  mechanical  devices  were  resort 
ed  to  for  corroboration,  and  the  results 
reached  were  that  the  diameter  of  one 
of  the  satellites  is  about  six  miles,  and 
that  of  the  other  about  seven  miles. 
They  are  the  smallest  known  in  the  solar 
system. 

The  availability  of  the  spectroscope  in 
astronomy  had  early  been  appreciated  by 
the  profession.  In  experiments  in  this 
line  it  had  bsen  found  that  a  classifica- 
tion of  the  nebulae  might  be  made  upon 
the  basis  of  their  spectra.  In  1880  the 
study  was  carried  a  stage  further  at 
Harvard  in  ascertaining  by  the  spectro- 
scope that  certain  faint  objects,  which. 


V^:H~£. 

OV  THR 

rr  •»  T-  c-tr  TV,  iJvi 


30 


HISTORY    OF    THE 


by  direct  vision,  had  been  judged  to  be 
stars,  are  in  fact  nebulae.  In  1881,  it 
was  found  that  the  spectroscope  is  ser- 
viceable in  the  discovery  of  variable 
stars.  Thus  incited,  a  new  instrument 
was  imported  from  London,  but  it  did 
not  prove  satisfactory. 

Nothing  of  importance  appears  to  have 
been  done  in  this  department  thereafter 
until  1886,  when  the  proposition  of  Mrs. 
Draper  opened  the  way  to  investigation 
of  spectra  by  aid  of  photography.  For 
this  the  11-inch  photographic  telescope, 
which  had  been  used  by  Dr.  Draper, 
was  loaned  by  Mrs.  Draper,  who  also 
met  the  expense  of  a  new  mounting  and 
a  special  observatory,  building.  'A  begin- 
ning was  made  with  an  eight-inch  in- 
strument, known  as  the  Bache  telescope. 
It  is  of  the  pattern  described  as  the 
"doublet,"  and  offers  the  advantage  of  a 
large  field  of  view.  With  it  the  spectra 
of  about  10,500  stars  of  the  sixth  magni- 
tude and  brighter,  between  the  pole  and 
25°  south,  were  photographed  before  the 
close  of  the  year  1888. 

The  instrument  was  then  sent  to  Peru, 
where  a  like  survey  of  the  Southern  sky 
is  in  progress.  Spectroscopic  observa- 
tions of  the  brighter  stars  have  been 
continued  at  Cambridge  with  the  11-inch 
Draper  telescope  and  of  fainter  stars 
with  an  8-inch  doublet  similar  to  the 
Bache  instrument.  In  this  work  it  was 
found  that  by  giving  a  certain  chemical 
stain  to  the  photographic  plate  the  yellow 
and  green  portions  of  the  spectrum  of 
even  the  fainter  stars  can  profitably  be 
studied. 

Furthermore,  what  seems  incredible  at 
first  thought,  it  appears  to  be  demon- 
strated that  the  components  of  binary 
stars  whose  juxtaposition  does  not  per- 
mit them  to  be  separated  in  any  tele- 
scope, may,  by  spectroscopic  photo- 
graphy, be  shown  to  be  in  revolution 
about  each  other.  Two  or  more  such 
objects  have  been  found  in  which  the 
changes  regularly  succeeding  in  the  lines 
of  the  spectrum  not  only  prove  that  the 
components  are  in  motion, but  permit  the 
period  of  revolution  to  be  determined. 

Prior  to  1883 photography  is  mentioned 
in  the  annual  reports  of  the  present  di- 
rector only  as  incidental  to  other  work. 
In  that  year  a  systematic  investigation 
was  undertaken,  having  among  other 
objects  in  view,  the  construction  of  a 
photographic  map  of  tbe  whole  heavens. 
An  early  application  of  photography  in 


this  investigation  was  in  the  direction  of 
determining  the  color  of  stars,  measuring 
their  brightness  by  an  independent 
method,  picturing  their  spectra,  exhibit- 
ing the  effect  of  atmospheric  absorption 
of  light  in  a  series  of  plates  covering  the 
period  of  a  year,  and  ascertaining  by  im- 
ages of  stars  trailed  upon  the  plate,  the 
clearness  and  steadiness  of  the  atmos- 
phere. 

In  1887  the  Boyden  fund  being  avail- 
able, the  first  step  was  taken  in  the  im- 
portant enterprise  of  giving  a  conti- 
nental expansion  to  the  work  of  the  ob- 
servatory. The  aim  of  the  testator  in 
making  his  bequest  could  well  be  fur- 
thered in  conducting  observations  simul- 
taneously in  photometry,  spectroscopy 
and  photography.  In  following  up  the 
project,  the  Draper  memorial  funds  ap- 
pear also  to  have  been  available  to  a 
considerable  extent  in  the  two  latter 
methods  of  observation.  Experimental 
stations  were  established  in  Colorado  in 
the  summer  of  1887  on  mountain  peaks 
of  14,000, 11,000  and  6000  feet  in  height, 
respectively,  and  the  meteorological  con- 
ditions, including  the  transparency  and 
steadiness  of  the  upper  atmosphere, 
were  duly  tested. 

This  investigation  was  continued  at 
the  expense  of  the  Boyden  fund  during 
the  following  winter  by  local  observers 
whose  stations  were  at  considerable 
height. 

In  1889  the  movement  was  further  ex- 
tended by  establishing  an  observatory  on 
a  peak  about  6500  feet  high  in  Peru,  25 
or  30  miles  distant  from  the  sea  coast 
and  the  city  of  Lima.  Local  official 
sanction  was  given  to  naming  the  peak, 
"Monte  Harvard."  About  the  same 
time  other  observers  of  the  Harvard 
corps  set  up  an  experimental  observa- 
tory on  Mt.  Wilson,  6000  feet  high,  in 
Southern  California.  The  station  is 
about  30  miles  from  the  sea  coast  and 
somewhat  less  from  the  city  of  Los  An- 
geles. 

The  experimental  purpose  is  the  same 
as  in  Colorado,  and  looks  to  the  ultimate 
establishment  of  a  permanent  observa- 
tory as  a  branch  of  the  Harvard  institu- 
tion at  some  favorable  point  where  the 
superior  atmospheric  conditions  of  the 
Pacific  mountain  regions  can  be  had.  In 
the  special  direction  of  picturing  celes- 
tial objects  at  Mt.  Wilson  remarkable 
photographic  results  are  already  pos- 
sessed at  Cambridge  in  plates  showing 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


31 


lunar  surfaces,  Saturn's  rings,  Jupiter's 
belts  and  the  most  brilliant  of  the  nebu- 
lae. That  among  them  which  is  of  the 
greatest  scientific  interest,  as  being  a 
novelty,  is  the  picture  on  a  negative 
plate  of  the  great  spiral  nebula  of  Orion. 
It  is  a  Harvard  discovery  by  the  photo- 
graphic method,  and  is  quite  other  than 
that  heretofore  known  as  the  great  nebula 
in  Orion.  That  is  an  object  having  a  span 
of  about,  half  a  degree.  The  new  great 
nebula  has  a  span  of  nearly  17  degrees ; 
its  outline  includes  all  the  stars  of  the 
constellation,  and  it  is  too  faint  an  object 
to  be  discerned  by  the  naked  eye. 

It  is  one  of  the  principal  advantages  of 
the  photographic  method  in  astronomical 
work  that  the  sensitive  plate  will  denote 
objects  which  the  eye  reinforced  by  a 
telescope  of  any  power  cannot  detect. 
The  great  nebula  thus  discovered  is 
within  reach  of  the  telescope,  but  its 
dimensions  are  so  much  larger  than  the 
field  of  the  telescope,  and  its  outline  so 
faint,  that  its  true  character  would  not 
thus  originally  be  apprehended. 

Photography  at  Cambridge  has  already 
produced  several  series  of  plates,  each 
plate  covering  a  section  of  the  northern 
sky,  the  whole  of  which  when  perfected 
and  collated  will  be  a  self- recorded,  and 
so,  indisputable  atlas,  showing  the  posi- 
tion of  all  stars  down  to  those  of  the 
llth  magnitude.  It  will  be  an ,  atlas  in 
sheets  of  glass,  and  frailer  in  some  re- 
spects than  if  composed  of  sheets  of  pa- 
per. But  for  study  of  the  science  the 
glass  is  better  than  any  product  of  the 
engraver's  art,  and  better  than  any  sun 
picture  printed  by  the  plate  itself.  In- 
deed, it  is  one  of  the  triumphs  of  the  pho- 
tographic method  that  a  perfect  photo- 
graphic negative  discloses  more  to  the 
student  than  does  a  telescopic  view  of 
that  area  of  the  sky  of  which  the  photo- 
graph is  a  copy.  Astronomical  research 
is  now  constantly  made  at  the  observa- 
tory in  this  manner,  and  with  results 
equal  to  or  better  than  those  reached  by 
former  methods. 

Celestial  objects  are  thus  originally 
discovered  and  the  positions  of  familiar 
objects  remeasured  or  otherwise  com- 
pared, and  this  work  might  be  continued 
throughout  the  whole  24  hours  were  it 
so  desired,  regardless  of  the  glare  of  the 
sun  by  day  or  of  impenetrable  clouds  by 
night. 

The  work  in  progress  in  Peru  will  give 
other  series  of  plates  offering  equal  facil- 


ities for  the  study  at  Cambridge  of  that 
part  of  the  sky  which  is  beyond  our 
southern  horizon.  Some  of  the  results 
which  these  extensive  investigations  of 
the  light,  the  spectra  and  the  positions 
of  the  stars  will  yield  will  anticipate  the 
doings  of  other  great  observatories  of 
the  world.  But  there  is  no  necessary 
limit  at  stars  of  the  magnitudes  named ; 
there  will  remain  other  worlds  to  con- 
quer 

A  special  encouragement  to  new  enter- 
prises at  Harvard  is  in  the  munificent 
gift  of  $50,000,  made  within  the  year 
past  by  Miss  Catherine  W.  Bruce  of  New 
York  for  the  construction  of  a  telescooe 
of  2i  inches  aperture,  to  be  used  in  pho- 
tography. A  contract  for  this  instrument 
has  been  made.  It  is  intended  that  its 
first  use  shall  be  to  photograph  maps  of 
the  fainter  stars,  and  it  is  hoped  that 
those  as  faint  as  the  16th  magnitude  can 
thus  be  represented.  The  basis  of  this 
sanguine  forecast  is  the  fact  that  with  an 
eight-inch  telescope  of  the  pattern  of  the 
proposed  24-inch,  and  an  exposure  of  the 
plate  for  one  hour,  twice  as  many  stars 
are  photographed  as  are  visible  with  a 
telescope  of  15  inches  aperture.  Prof. 
Pickering  received  the  honorary  degree 
of  A.M.  from  Harvard  in  1880,  and  that 
of  LL.D.  from  the  University  of  Califor- 
nia in  1886,  and  from  the  University  of 
Michigan  in  1887.  Like  his  predecessor, 
Prof.  G.  P.  Bond,  he  has  been  honored 
by  the  Koyal  Astronomical  Society  in  the 
bestowal  of  its  gold  medal. 

The  several  investigations  of  chief 
importance  which  are  now  in  progress  at 
Harvard  College  Observatory  have 
already  been  mentioned  as  part  of  the 
record  of  the  half-century  past.  They 
also  go  into  the  record  with  which  the 
second  half-century  now  begins.  As 
such  they  may  be  briefly  recapitulated, 
viz. :  The  survey,  for  the  purposes  of  the 
great  European  standard  catalogue 
known  as  the  ''Astronomische  Gessell- 
schaft,"  of  the  zone  between  9°  50'  south 
and  14°  10'  south ;  the  photometric,  spec- 
troscopic,  and  photographic  special  sur- 
veys making  in  south  latitude  to  com- 
plete like  surveys  hitherto  made  at  Cam- 
bridge, extending  to  about  30°  south ;  the 
systematic  work  in  photography,  which 
includes  much  classifiable  as  spectro- 
scopy,  carried  on  both  at  Cambridge  and 
in  Peru  as  the  Draper  Memorial  work ; 
other  systematic  work  of  like  importance 
done  under  the  special  restrictions  of 


32 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    OBSERVATORY. 


the  Boyden  fund;  and  what  perhaps 
may  be  called  the  orbital  observations  of 
eclipses  of  Jupiter's  satellites. 

That  planet  has  now  nearly  completed 
its  circuit  around  the  sun,  and  the  last  of 
its  satellite  eclipses  te  be  observed  will 
occur  on  Dec.  17  ensuing.  During  the 
period  of  12  years  about  450  of  these 
eclipses  nave  been  observed  and  recorded. 
Perhaps  as  many  others  for  which 
preparations  were  made  at  the  observa- 
tory, passed  unseen,  because  of  interpos- 
ing clouds.  Except  to  an  expert  these 
figures  give  no  hint  of  the  magnitude  of 


the  work.  All  that  need  here  be  said  is 
that  in  its  completed  form  it  will  be  one 
of  the  great  achievements  of  the  observa- 
tory. 

The  enumeration  of  these  unfinished 
works  and  those  completed,  which  has 
now  been  made,  will  have  fulfilled  its 
purpose  if  it  shall  have  impressed  upon 
the  mind  of  the  general  reader  the  fact , 
with  which  it  is  presumable  everybody 
is  somewhat  familiar,  that  a  great  oak 
has  grown  from  the  little  acorn  planted 
on  Harvard  College  campus  50  years 
ago. 


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